


The Humanity Abandonment Project

by BlackBirdAolen



Series: Humanity | A Resident Evil (and Crossover) Series [1]
Category: Resident Evil - All Media Types, Resident Evil 5 - Fandom
Genre: Abandoned Complex, Addiction, BSAA, Bondage, Caring, Clash, Creator and Creation, Employment, Experiments, F/M, Fight of Dominance, First Strike, Gentle touches, Giant Sloth, Goo Creature, Heatplay, Helpless, Honesty, Humanity Abandoment Project, M/M, Multi, Mysterious Enemy, New Threat, Other, Overpowering, Project, Questioning, Shapeshifting, Straying Thoughts, Struggle, Surprises, Teasing, Tentacles, Umbrella, bioweapon, care, fight, goo, holding down, mission, plant - Freeform, scorpion tail, surprise, witnesses
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-09
Updated: 2015-05-28
Packaged: 2018-02-08 05:04:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 22,191
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1927677
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlackBirdAolen/pseuds/BlackBirdAolen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After a brief vacation, Chris is called back to the office of the BSAA, to look into a new and rather peculiar case. Several witnesses reported a strange, humanoid being lurking at the abandoned Umbrella complex. Adding to that, there seems to be something the BSAA hasn't been aware of as of yet. The Humanity Abandonment Project. It already sounds awful on the paper. And as Chris has yet to find out, it was more than just playing around with a virus. No, this time, he is facing something completely different from the usual weaponized virus.</p><p>(This story is based on a long-time, multi-chaptered roleplay with a friend of mine. The storyline has been changed a little, but it does reflect the ideas and concepts behind the roleplay.)</p><p> </p><p>  <a href="http://ask.fm/BlackBirdAolen">Got a fanfic idea for me?</a><br/><a href="http://cheroshseiphar.deviantart.com/">My deviantART - full of original fiction.</a><br/><a href="http://blackbirdaolen.tumblr.com/">Snippets and ramblings on my tumblr.</a></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A New Threat

Chris Redfield didn't know what to expect when he stepped into his office that morning. He had spent a nice weekend with his colleagues Jill Valentine and Leon Kennedy, and now was about to go back to the daily madness of his work. The brunet had recovered from their latest mission to round up and eliminate a couple stray infected, probably from an earlier mission concerning one of Umbrella's new concoctions, and now, he was surprised to find a folder with classified information on his desk.

Sitting down, Chris leaned back in his chair, sighing quietly. He just needed a couple more moments to really be ready for what was ahead. The brief vacation had been necessary to create a counterpoint to the usual rush of working all day and night to contain biological threats, and it appeared that the recovery phase would be followed up by Then he finally picked up the folder and opened it.

The first page already baffled him.

He picked up a blurred photograph of something which appeared to be a faintly human shape, though one composed of pure silver. The photograph had been worked on, sharpened and given more contrast, but it could do only little to reveal what exactly was depicted.

Chris shook his head, sifting through the documents in the folder. They were a couple of reports drawn from the hard drives of Umbrella's computers. Apparently, he was dealing with something called "Cerberus". From what he could read from the documents, Cerberus was part of the "Humanity Abandonment Project". He never had heard of that before, and the sound of it already sent a chill down his spine. If he could trust the records, it had been different from the usual virus experiments. It had aimed to create humanoid beasts from different volunteers, but not by the means of a virus.

The next pages were filled with complicated graphs and spreadsheets of confusing values and variables. Chris had the feeling that his mind was about to burst when he merely looked at them, so he set them aside in favor of reading the BSAA report, which was surprisingly long. He hadn't expected this new phenomenon to be that well documented already.

Before he could really get to read, there was a knock at the door. Chris looked up, and saw Jill leaning in the doorway. He smiled at her, inviting her in with a gesture. "Good to see you, Jill. Did you also get a report on this?"

She glanced at the folder, shaking her head. "I didn't get anything like this. I think I will be sent somewhere else. Is it something unsettling? You do look a little worried about it."

"Well..." Chris shrugged and forced himself to smile. "It's not really lifting my spirits to read about yet another experiment Umbrella conducted on human beings. But it didn't seem to be their usual brand of experiments, which I find quite odd..."

"What do you mean?" Jill furrowed her eyebrows and took a look at the photograph. She lifted an eyebrow, even turning the photograph sideways to get a different angle at the thing the camera had caught there. "What in the world is this? To me, that looks like the Silver Surfer from the comics, but that's not really what we're looking at here, right?"

Chris shrugged lightly, pondering what Jill had said. It was difficult to pin down what exactly this project was about, and even with the rather well-filled case file, it did little to shed light on the current situation. He studied the report assembled by the BSAA, but all it said that there were several eye witnesses, who reported a strange figure around the former labs of the Umbrella Corporation. Moreover, it seemed to have moved at higher speed than a human being should have been able to. It had been careful to not tread anywhere illuminated, so there had been no confirmation of the silvery quality of the being's skin, as the photograph would have suggested. It was a difficult case so far, as there was so little information on it. But there had to be at least some little thing that would hint at what this being was up to in the first place.

"Well, that is a pretty nebulous case up to now." Jill shrugged lightly, shaking her head and looking fairly unsatisfied. "This doesn't look good, Chris. I am worried for you. You have gone through quite something already, and they already want to send you out again?"

"It's alright Jill really." Chris smiled at her, reaching over to her and patting her shoulder reassuringly. "I won't get caught up in some strange stuff, promised. But I still want to make sure that there is nothing dangerous going on there. I wouldn't want to have something uncontrollable running around and endangering people. The name of the project and the reports so far alone don't really point at a nice being, do they?"

"They really don't," Jill agreed. "But I'm still not too happy about it. I would love to accompany you, but Leon already was teamed up with me. We are supposed to look into a case of possible B.O.W.s, so there's that..."

Chris felt a small pang of disappointment, but he didn't try to argue with her. He would have felt a lot more comfortable if Jill had been able to join him for the mission, but if she already was preoccupied, he didn't want to talk her into abandoning the mission with Leon and join him instead. He would be able to deal with this freak by himself, of that, the agent was convinced. He had put far worse beings into their place before, so he would be able to put up with just about anything. At least, that was his thought about it.

Jill then was called away by Leon, who briefly nodded toward Chris. That left the brunet to ponder on how he would want to take on that strange being in the future. He chewed on his lower lip while he studied the reports again.

  
  


_Witness 1 saw the figure moving at an incredible high speed, between the building complexes B and C of the abandoned settlement of Umbrella. It was furthermore stated that there was something strangely alerted about the way the figure walked. Due to the sighting happening at noon, the witness had a clear look at the figure, but couldn't give a clear account of the coloring of the human shape, as it moved rather fast. The witness claimed that she was blinded by a flash briefly, as if a camera had gone off._

  
  


_Witness 2 caught sight of the figure in the afternoon of the following day, also providing the photograph of the strange being. Ever since the Umbrella settlement was abandoned, it has become a magnet to ghost hunters and mediums, all of them claiming that there is something unearthly about the complex. (It should be noted that several agents confirmed that there is a rather unsettling feeling creeping up on them whenever they enter the abandoned factories.) The sighting lasted for only a few seconds, and the photograph sadly was quite blurred, despite the camera being one of the latest models._

  
  


_Witness 3 claimed to have come into close contact with the creature, but gave a very differing account of its appearance. According to the statement given, the creature is supposedly looking human, though with a strangely silvery color covering all of its body. Adding to what is known up to now, the witness claimed that the creature took on a completely different form right in front of their eyes, that of "a bipedal, humongous sloth, which looked about ready to strike"._

  
  


_Witness 4 caught a glimpse on the creature around noon, much like Witness 1. The difference being that it happened at a closer proximity, so the witness gave an account of the features of the creature. According to Witness 4, the creature looks like an athletic or buff human male, around the age of 25, with short hair and a square jaw. However, the color was recounted as being that of healthy skin, covering all of the creature's body._

  
  


Chris gulped when he laid down the report. So, according to the statements—if they all could be taken seriously and as truth—he was dealing with a shapeshifter. That was about as big of a nightmare as an enemy could become. If it could take on even the shape of extinct animals (Chris faintly remembered having seen the replica of a bipedal, giant sloth at a museum's exhibition of prehistoric animals), then it would be a huge problem taking on this thing.

The agent shook his head, closing the report file. There was no time for self doubt. He had to make sure that everything was alright at the abandoned factory settlement, and if that meant taking one of the escaped freaks of Wesker's personal human zoo, then so be it.

 


	2. Cerberus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The eyewitnesses weren't lying... something is still lurking on the abandoned perimeter of the abandoned Umbrella facility. And it soon enough turns out to be quite the unpleasant surprise for Chris.

Being on site after seeing the reports gave Chris an uneasy feeling. He had come in the early afternoon, examining the buildings. Ivy was starting to cling to some of the walls, looking a bit darker than he would have expected it to look like. Then again, on this perimeter, there had been an uncounted amount of experiments and other strange things happening, so it seemed to be pretty logical that some things around here would look fucked up.

The sun was glinting off some of the distillation towers in the far south of the factory. Chris knew from reports that there, a couple of ingredients had been cooked up to create more viruses, or even just the base for a transport fluid for the whole concoction. Chris glanced around, his hand on his gun. He had brought his usual equipment with him, as though he was facing an outbreak. But up to this point, everything had been eerily quiet, and there was nothing in sight so far. The reports didn't seem to be wrong, though. He doubted that the BSAA would send him on a pointless mission anyway. So why were those ugly doubts sneaking up on him?

Maybe, it was because of the inconsistency of the different eye witness reports. He didn't want to believe that this thing, which supposedly was lurking on the abandoned site, really possessed all those qualities described by the witnesses. There was just no way he would believe this. It would have been too fantastic even for him, despite having seen organisms being changed to the size of a ship by a stray variant of the T-Virus.

"Nowhere to go but inside." Chris tried to calm himself down and steel himself for what was going to happen next. But the problem was that he had absolutely no idea what would be awaiting him in the very near future. There was an untold number of possibilities of how this encounter with that strange creature would transpire, and he wouldn't be happy about any of those possibilities, he feared. "Now come on, you faced worse things before."

It took him a while to find an open door. Most of the gates of the factory had been shut tightly, and been sealed off with chains and padlocks. It had been issued by the BSAA, to avoid having curious visitors stumble upon something they shouldn't. The perimeter was guarded 24/7, but that hadn't kept the eye-witnesses from seeing that strange creature rumored to be prowling through the halls of the factory. At least, no one had been harmed up to this point, so that was the huge plus.

On the inside of the factory building, it was surprisingly bright. Chris squinted his eyes briefly, to get used to the unusually strong light falling into the corridors. No flickering light bulbs, no ominous humming and clicking of some far away machines. It was all quiet, with the exception of the soft, unnerving buzzing of the light bulbs overhead. Chris cocked his gun, slowly pacing along the corridor. He was ready to face this thing. He just needed to keep a cool head. It was hard when knowing that he was facing something no one had ever really combated with before.

The rooms he passed by were completely empty, even entirely stripped of their furniture. Some cables still were laying around, but other than that, nothing could be seen. On the tiled ground, Chris could make out the faint shapes of the furniture having stood in the rooms before, but it was near impossible to guess what exactly had been in those rooms. The sight remained pretty much the same for three more corridors. Empty rooms with a few hints at what might have been there before, the unnaturally bright light, and the afternoon sun falling through the dirty windows.

As he gazed into yet another room, he noticed something odd on the ground. It looked like a small silver stain, like paint, having dried on the stone tiles. Growing curious, he looked around if there was anyone beside of him present, before he entered the room and crouched down to examine this stain more closely. Chris extended a finger, touching what he assumed to be paint, and gasping when he noticed that it was rather warm. The stone floor was pretty cool, so the warmth couldn't have come from some heating system installed directly into the floor. It would have been rather impractical anyways. But this stain was the most peculiar thing he had seen in about half an hour. A warm counterpoint to the cool surroundings. Chris had no idea what in the world this paint-like material could be.

"Are we admiring a trace of me?"

Chris jolted and quickly whirled around, only to face that strange, silvery being he had seen on the photograph. It looked humanoid, like described by some of the witnesses, and, despite the rather well-defined features, it was a little hard to tell what the expression of the creature was like. Chris assumed it was somewhere between glee and haughtiness, but he honestly had no way of telling.

"Who are you?" Chris tried to sound steady, even though he still was rather freaked out. "I thought that we had eliminated all of Umbrella's experimental dogs. Did you have fun spooking all of those eye-witnesses?"

"Not my fault they were so curious about this factory here. I can't blame them, really." It was puzzling how casual this creature was. There was no hostility, and no aggression coming from that silvery man. This was not the usual Umbrella experiment. "I mean, abandoned places do have their charm about them. Sure, they can be creepy as fuck, and at night, I wouldn't want to come here, but hey..."

Chris was unsure how to react. He didn't want to shoot this creature right away. If it was intelligent enough to converse with him, then it couldn't be on the same level as the usual zombies Umbrella deployed to make all of their lives a whole lot more difficult. This was a thinking, and rational, if not human being. It was hard to decide what to do with this strange creature.

"You don't want to shoot me." It was a statement, not a question. Did this creature also read minds? "You have qualms about dealing with humanoid beings, as long as they are not obviously corrupted, infected, or something other making them inhuman. "Well? Why are you here, other than checking on me?"

"I was to check what the Hell is going on here..." Chris sighed, slowly lowering his gun. He somehow didn't feel threatened by this guy, even though he was not entirely sure about the whole situation. "From all the witness reports, it sounded like more than one of your sort was running around here. I somehow had a hard time believing that everything was just because of one creature."

"Tch, don't call me a creature." The silvery man seemed to be a bit offended, and Chris could even see his eyebrows furrowing lightly. "I'm more than an ordinary creature. I have a certain pride, you must know. And if you already are willing to talk, I would at least expect you to consider asking for my name."

Somehow, the initial sympathy tilted a little, and Chris furrowed his eyebrows. There was a certain arrogance about this man, which strongly remembered him of Wesker. It shouldn't have surprised him. This creature was an experiment most likely masterminded by this very man, and it wouldn't be the first time that his experiments shared some of his traits. But to have the same arrogance, of all things?

A strange tension had risen between them, and Chris slowly cocked his gun. He was ready for about anything—he didn't plan on getting lulled into security by his opponent—and he would not give this guy, or thing, or whatever it was, any chance. The hard to read expression of the silvery beast shifted into one of anger, and the crossed arms slowly uncrossed and raised a little.

"Are you really planning on using that pesky gun of yours against me?" A fine twitching went through the creature, like a ripple through water. "It wouldn't do you any good. Think about it, boy. I'm one of Wesker's creatures. How much could a gun do against me?"

"Oh, pretty much, actually. Infected go down pretty much if you just put enough bullets into them." Chris was feeling how his temper began to boil. Not good, he was about to lose his composure. It was his biggest weakness, and one that any opponent with a little cunning would abuse. "But I suppose you are not, in fact, infected?"

"Bingo. Someone actually did use his brain here." The creature seemed strangely gleeful again, all of a sudden. Chris didn't know how to think about this situation any longer, and it put him on edge. "It's tiring to have those mindless idiots coming after me, you know. Some just don't like to use their brains. And that's bothering me."

Chris didn't reply to that. He had no idea what exactly he was facing here still, and he wasn't planning on finding out the rough way. He wanted to make sure that this thing wasn't harmful, get everything into order, and get the hell out of this creepy abandoned factory. But instead, he had to put up with being badmouthed and generally made being felt like he was at fault here for something.

"I warn you only one time. Come too close, and I will shoot." Chris lifted his gun higher, pointing it at the creature's head. "I am not willing to deal with something still classified as a bioweapon, which could backfire at me at about any moment."

"Bioweapon... is that really all that you can think about? It's disappointing, Chris. I would have hoped that I could come at you at a more gentle pace. But apparently, a bit more convincing methods are necessary." The creature was definitely showing hostility now. Several ripples wavered across its body, and Chris was fairly sure that it was readying some kind of appendage. "I'm nothing like your usual opponents. Be aware of that, agent boy."

The tension suddenly snapped, and a silvery appendage whipped forward, aiming for Chris's arm. The agent could barely avoid the tentacle coming his way. In retaliation, he shot at the creature, hitting three times. The silvery man stumbled backwards, cursing under his breath, and hissing while he dug around in his gooey body for the bullets. Chris didn't hesitate to put three more into his opponent. It would put Cerberus out of commission for some time, or so he hoped.

"I'm sorry, Cerberus, but I'm not willing to play around with a bad little doggy." Chris couldn't hold back a sneer. That was all he could think of when looking at Cerberus. He was one more of the many loyal servants of Wesker, and that made him an enemy. But there still was a small sting at the back of Chris's mind. There was nothing inherently evil about the silvery man, he thought. He had provoked Cerberus to act, but on his own, the man had done nothing.

"Don't you dare talking to me like that..." Cerberus hissed, slowly coming onto his feet again. "You won't dare talking about me like that ever again!"

This time, Chris was caught off guard when a flurry of tentacles came his way. There was no way he could have evaded all of them. In mere moments, he was tied to the ground, unable to twitch a muscle. The grip around his right wrist tightened uncomfortably, and he was forced to release his gun. Cerberus brushed it aside like an annoying bug, the sneer now back on his near featureless face. "That's a lot better. Let's see what we can do about that nasty mouth of yours."

The silvery substance felt incredibly warm against Chris's skin, warmer than a human body. Odd, considering that most of Wesker's experiments rather felt cold or slimy, or both, when they even got so close as to touch them. Chris grunted, struggling in the firm grip, but it was useless. Cerberus had nothing solid to grasp at, and it made his predicament all the more dangerous. Chris stared at the creature's face, which slowly was becoming better defined, until it had taken on rather edgy, rugged qualities.

"A pity that I can't do anything better yet, but I guess it will have to suffice..." Cerberus sighed, smirking smugly, while he again shifted. To Chris's surprise, he took on color and the shape of Wesker, albeit only with the reptilian eyes. There were no other signs that he would be inhuman. "Not too bad, is it?" Even the voice was an absolutely perfect imitation. "I presume that you and Wesker share quite the history together. So why not giving you a more comfortable situation to deal with?"

"This is _not_ more comfortable in any respect," Chris drawled out, jerking around in his bonds. "Let me go right this instant, you monstrosity!"

"Chris, Chris, Chris. You are such a hot-headed one, aren't you? I think we need to cool down before we have a lot of fun together." Cerberus snickered, and then covered Chris's mouth in a deep, invasive kiss. Even biting at his tongue did little to repel Cerberus. "I love them fierce and feisty like you."

"Release me right this instant!" Chris attempted to kick into the goo, but the only result it yielded was that his leg was suspended in mid-air, leaving him awkwardly vulnerable to Cerberus's advances. With a sneer, Cerberus slithered between Chris's legs, giving a lewd grin and a small grind against him. "Don't you even dare to...!"

His other leg was forced into the air, the appendages spreading them out lightly. The heat was starting to get to Chris, he began sweating and panting lightly. This damnable creature seemed to be recovering from the previous attack already. Chris heard the faint, high-pitched sound of bullets falling to the ground. Six times in total. Cerberus had expelled all of the projectiles from his gooey substance.

"You do have a lot of fight in you, I'll give you that much, Chris. But you will have to know that I'm able to take whatever you throw my way." Cerberus bent closer, those reptilian eyes he had mimicked shimmering with glee. "I could just take you right here and now, and you could do nothing against it. Why, I already can feel you hardening. Did that naughty Wesker take you in such a fashion before?"

"O-Of course not!" Chris exclaimed, flustered beyond belief. A weak lie. Cerberus could see right through it, the small chuckle gave it away. "Don't get false impressions, you fucking beast. I'm not interested in you, or in that asshole Wesker."

"Oh, of course you're interested in us. Just not sexually, correct?" Cerberus laughed with glee, as though he had told the most fantastic joke. "Please, _do_ tell me a couple more lies. It's so amusing to fluster you, and to get you all worked up."

Chris groaned, biting on his lower lip. This wasn't good. Cerberus was having the upper hand, and he could barely do anything against it. Hopefully, help would arrive soon. The distress signal should have gone off by now...


	3. Silvery Heat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cerberus captured Chris and decided to start playing with the agent. To the creature's glee, Chris is quite responsive to his taunts...

"Now, my sweet little agent... Where were we?" Cerberus began to like this game more and more. He had Chris exactly where he wanted him, and there was so much he wanted to do with the male. Wesker had instructed him personally when it had come to the agent. There had been a certain hatred reverberating in Wesker's voice whenever he had talked about Chris. There was something Wesker loathed about Chris. "Ah yes. Tell me more about what your and Wesker's relationship is like. I didn't get much out of him, which is a bit of a nuisance. And a disappointment, on top of that."

Chris had his teeth clenched tightly, and was unwilling to utter any more sounds. Cerberus sighed quietly, rubbing his hands across Chris's chest. "You are no fun. Maybe I need to loosen your tongue a little? Or is it the way I look?" Now, Cerberus smirked, and straightened up a little. "You are just a bit stiff, Chris... But it's the right stiffness, just the one I want to see on you."

Chris blushed furiously the moment Cerberus began kneading his hardening groin. The response was quite satisfying already, but it was not enough yet. He wanted to make sure that Chris would melt beneath him and beg him for his cock. Yes, that was just what Cerberus wanted right now. He wanted to leave a mark on Chris, and make him forget about Wesker. Instead, Cerberus wanted to make sure that Chris would remember only him. The color slowly drained from his form, and he remained silvery and gooey atop of Chris.

"I think you like me more when I look like this? You seemed to react quite positively to me. And I seem to have been correct." He slithered his hand into the opened fly of Chris's pants. His tentacles had unbuttoned and unzipped the pants and began rubbing across the hard length. "Yes, that will do."

Chris whimpered pitifully while Cerberus was having his fun with him, trying his hardest to get away from the silvery man. Cerberus could practically smell how Chris's self-control was slowly, but surely, slipping away. Before, there still had been this determination in the agent's eyes. Something firm, something set, and something unwavering. But by now, it had already been replaced a little by the insecurity Chris was starting to feel, and more importantly by the heat undoubtedly rising inside the agent. Oh, what a delicious sight indeed. Cerberus could barely get enough of those pleading eyes, and they barely had begun playing.

He bent closer, laving his tongue against Chris's lips, before suddenly pressing a demanding kiss on the agent's mouth. He wouldn't give him a chance to resist. He would make sure that Chris would emerge from this encounter as addicted to him. Wesker might have worked on making him loathe Chris, just like the leader of Umbrella was loathing the agent, but Cerberus simply couldn't quell his fascination for the unusual human. Even though Chris clearly hadn't been enhanced by anything, and wasn't one of the carriers of the T-Virus, there was a certain dominance, a certain fierce fire radiating from him. It was rare in human beings, in Cerberus's experience, and that made Chris all the more appealing.

"Tell me, my little boy..." Cerberus cooed while he began rubbing along Chris's slowly swelling crotch. "What exactly made you join the BSAA? What made you fight guys like me, hm? I didn't get to know much, and that is a pity. How does the saying go? _'Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer?'_ A very truthful statement, I have to say..."

"I'm pretty sure it wasn't meant like this," Chris gritted out from between clenched teeth. Cerberus chuckled, intensifying the attention he gave Chris's neck. It made the agent shudder all over, even mewl helplessly. "Goddammit, let go of me, I'm not your plaything?"

"Oh, of course you're not," Cerberus cooed. That threw Chris off, he could sense it. "You're a respectable man, and a serious rival. That's why I need to get to know you more closely, you understand? I want to make sure that I have a good grip on what you're like, be it during working hours or during leisure time. Of course, it's nothing you would openly admit to want to find out, too." Now, Cerberus couldn't hold off the smug expression. "After all, you are still a very correct and orderly member of your organization, and as such, you're against this kind of relationship with your enemy."

"Smug bastard..." Chris sighed, relaxing just for a moment. Cerberus was a little surprised about the tension going down, but he remained attentive. "I bet you were like that even before Wesker started experimenting on you."

Was that a little bit of admiration shining through in the agent's words and gaze? Cerberus wasn't quite sure what to make of it, and it completely threw him off his game. He had planned on taunting Chris on and on, but now, he wasn't so sure about that any longer. He remained wrapped around the other male, like a skin-tight body suit, to keep him under control, should the struggle continue all of a sudden. He gazed at Chris, as though he could find out what was going on in the agent's mind by a mere look. But he found only confusing and conflicting evidence. The tension had returned to Chris's body, but there also was something of anticipation in the way he looked back at the silvery male. What a strange and fascinating man indeed...

"You confuse me." Cerberus sighed, shaking his head lightly. "I don't know what to make of you. But I guess that it's a sentiment you can only return, correct?"

"Quite right." Chris headbutted him, though the movement had something strangely weak. Sweat was dripping down Chris's temples, and a little bit of shifting revealed just how hard and heated up Chris's nethers had become. "Fuck, stop talking and do it already."

"Is that how you admit defeat?" Cerberus snorted, but ground lightly against Chris's member, to keep him interested and hard as steel. "That's a bit strange, wouldn't you say so, too? After all, you're not supposed to hump your enemy... Though, that could also be said for me, I guess." He fell silent briefly, his gooey body rippling against Chris's cock and eliciting a small, desperate gasp. "Then again, it would be such a waste to just stop now. Plus, I'm quite sure that you would start complaining about me leaving you hanging there. And that would be something I can't do, right?"

"Didn't I tell you to shut up already?" It hadn't come as aggressively as Chris might have intended to, and another moan swallowed his protest. "Fuck, please, just do it. Do it!"

Cerberus grinned, gripping Chris's waist tightly. He had retreated his silvery goo just a little. For this, he wanted to give Chris the feeling that he would be taken by something human, not just by some shapeless goo. For some odd reason, it mattered to him. Maybe, it was this scenario which Wesker had talked about with a certain sense of dread in his voice. That Cerberus would fall in love with Chris, at least some part of him, and completely fuck up some part of the mission he was actually designed for. But his mission already had failed for the simple reason that Cerberus couldn't kill anyone.

It wasn't a question of ability. Cerberus had vanquished countless infected already, and that with an ease which had surprised even his maker. But when it came to defeating someone as human as Chris, he suddenly became squeamish. A strange turn of events, as Wesker had remarked with a sour face. Of course, it would have been so much easier for Wesker to let Cerberus do the dirty work. But after an intense brawl—with a quite surprising outcome—Cerberus had established his independence. The BSAA just wasn't aware of that yet, and he wouldn't brag with it for some more time.

"You're such a hunk... Irresistible to me, and filled with so many facets I yet want to explore." Cerberus purred when he ground his shapeless groin against Chris, until a hard, generous length emerged from the semi-solid silver. "This will definitely be fun."

"I thought I told you already that I don't want to hear an endless speech!" Chris hissed out. He wanted to add something, but was cut short by a moan when Cerberus pressed against him warningly, warm and thick goo oozing from the silvery form to lubricate Chris's resistant pucker. "F-Fuck, what the Hell..."

"Some sort of design flaw," Cerberus chuckled, while the gooey, lubricated length slowly pushed against Chris's backside, patiently wearing his resistance down. "I'm learning from experience. Experience told me that entering dry and with force would be everything but pleasant for you. And I want to make this first time with me a special time."

"Stop the fuck teasing!"

If Chris had been free to move his hands, Cerberus was sure that he would just have been smacked for his endless talking. But well, it was just another "design flaw". He had been intended to be a silent hitman, one unable to utter any sounds. But somehow, his accelerated evolution—for all of Wesker's creations from the Humanity Abandonment Project were, or rather, in all but Cerberus's cases, had been capable of swiftly adapting to new environments and situations—had granted him the ability to speak. It had been useful for acknowledging commands more definitely than by gestures alone. As for his urge to talk, however, it had turned out to be a bit of a nuisance. One that couldn't be corrected any longer.

Cerberus gripped Chris's backside with one hand, spreading him slightly while the thick head of his cock was pushing against the agent's pucker. Chris gritted his teeth and moaned unsteadily, his body only after some time reluctantly accepting the rather big penetration. Chris panted heavily when the bulbous head finally slipped in entirely, though blushed when a rush of thick lubricant spurted from Cerberus's cock. "D-Did you just cum?"

"Not yet." Cerberus snickered, patting Chris's ass lightly. "Just making sure that everything is nice and slick."

It was fascinating to see Chris's reaction to the warm goo in his backside. He squirmed and muttered incoherently, about how hot it was, and how deeply he was feeling the goo inside of him. Cerberus licked his lips at that tasty sight, barely able to contain himself. But he didn't want to rush anything. If he had pressed on with too much force now, he would have hurt Chris. It wasn't an inability for him to hurt a human being, and that was exactly what was worrying him at that very moment. If he had made a too strong move right now, he would have ruined pretty much everything. But it was hard to hold back with the tight feeling around him. He longed to feel more of it, but had to discipline himself for the moment. And discipline was _not_ his strong suit.

"Fucking Hell, Chris..." he grunted out, biting on his lower lip and softly shifting around a little, to try and get a better angle to push further into the agent. "You feel fantastic."

Chris's reply was only a whimper, as he was struggling to cope with the feeling of Cerberus impaling him. Cerberus huffed lightly, his hand shifting from Chris's ass to his lower back, a counterpoint to the uncomfortable thickness between Chris's legs. Eventually, he pressed in deeper, with utmost care and watching out to not roughen Chris up too much. He wanted to make the agent lose his mind from mind-blowing sex, not from unbearable pain.

Cerberus released Chris's hands and wrists from his goo, and immediately, those very hands were clawing at his shoulders and back. "F-Fuck, Cerberus, you're too hot and big..." Chris panted, whimpered and cursed, his thighs twitching with an effort to keep his body from straining too much. "Go on... P-please, I'm losing my mind here."

Cerberus nodded quietly, kissing Chris lightly while he began with small, shallow thrusts. All the time, Chris was huffing and moaning under his breath, uttering more of his incoherent praise for Cerberus's thick length. It did little to dampen the fire inside of Cerberus, nor did it do anything against the feeling that his ego was about to swell to planetary sizes. To have this man beneath him was a rush, and he wanted to taste everything of it.

He began to push deeper into the agent, eliciting a few protesting groans from Chris, which soon were replaced by longing moans and sighs. Smirking, Cerberus straightened up a little more, grabbing one of Chris's legs and forcing the other to turn on his side. Holding him suspended like this, and seeing him claw at the ground helplessly, was pure honey for Cerberus. Panting, he ground into Chris, giving him all of his length to feel, all of his thickness to deal with. Chris's member was pulsing, then dripping with precum. Cerberus uttered a purr when he swiped some of the small pearls up, licking them off his fingers when Chris gazed up at him feverishly. The sight made the agent blush in mild embarrassment, but that soon enough was drowned by the rush of ecstasy wrecking his body.

Cerberus moaned deeply when he felt a sudden contraction around his length, followed by a helpless gasp from Chris, and the splatter of thick white semen against the ground. He held the panting man suspended for a while longer, before he released Chris's leg and pulled away from him slowly. Cerberus sighed softly when his still hard length slipped free from Chris's hole. Thick, silvery cum was dripping from Chris's stretched backside, sliding along his thigh and backside to the ground. Chris was a little out of it, still lost in the aftermath of his orgasm. Cerberus chuckled quietly, haphazardly pulling up Chris's pants to keep him at least a little decent, before he made his way out of the factory. He had heard the approaching backup long before Chris had even gotten any idea about it, and when his colleagues found him half unconscious and drenched in sweat, Cerberus already was out of their reach.


	4. Wesker's Dog Gone Rogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's no good. Cerberus is not a controlled B.O.W., but a vigilante in the eyes of the BSAA. Before they can decide what to do, Chris will have to sort out his thoughts, and quickly so.

In the days after Chris's first encounter with him, Cerberus was the topic of most of the conversations at the BSAA. Chris had only revealed enough for the other agents to understand that Cerberus was extremely capable, and undoubtedly had a few tricks up his sleeve. He didn't want to tell anyone about the more juicy details of their encounter. For that, he was too flustered by the mere thought. How would his colleagues have reacted if he had told them that their new target had taken him in such a fashion? His concern with the potential damage to his reputation was too big for him to even consider warning them of Cerberus's considerable sexual prowess.

Jill noticed his discomfort, but didn't say anything until they were alone in Chris's office. There, she shut the door, sat down opposite of Chris, and stared at him questioningly. "There's something on your mind," she finally stated. The flinching gave Chris's discomfort away clearly. "I guess it has to do with this Cerberus character?"

"Yes." Chris sighed, leaning back and closing his eyes in defeat. He hadn't wanted to tell anyone, but he couldn't lie to Jill. She had been his partner for such a long time already, it would have been unfair to not tell her the truth at some point. It just was happening a little fast, in his opinion.

"Tell me, Chris. Please." Jill leaned forward, gazing at him questioningly when he finally dared opening his eyes again. "There was something on your mind at all that time after you returned from that mission. You seemed upset about something. So please, do tell me. What happened between you and that strange thing?"

Chris bit on his lower lip, trying to calm his mind. He was talking to Jill, after all. He could trust her, without even the slightest speck of doubt. She was loyal to him, and hopefully could keep a secret to herself. He prayed that he wouldn't make a mistake when he'd tell her, before he took a deep breath and looked her straight into the eyes.

"This thing is called Cerberus. As you heard already, he is intelligent, has a couple of nasty powers on his side—shifting his shape, changing his appearance, and utilizing his goo-like body for several purposes being a couple of them—and still has a connection to Wesker. What I only told the higher-ups..." He swallowed briefly, to remain composed. "He doesn't seem to work for his creator any longer. Wesker apparently lost control of Cerberus, and now, this man, thing, whatever he is... He's out of control, and bears no allegiance to anyone. He won't be stopped even if we take down Umbrella once more. In other words, he's a nightmare come true for us."

"Well _fuck_." Jill leaned back and shook her head, remaining speechless for several moments. Chris could see that it was bothering her greatly, and he could only understand her too well. They both had suffered their deal of nightmarish experiences with Wesker and some of his dearest pets, but imagining that one of those loyal dogs would have gone solo and now was an absolutely unknown variable in their future missions was well beyond the usual nightmare potential. "That's really a messed up situation. But was that the only thing you were pondering?"

Now, it would become a little more tricky. Chris shifted around in his chair again, trying to find the right words. Surprisingly, the encounter with Cerberus had left little impact on his body. He had expected to walk bow-legged for some time, or at least experience some amount of pain, but neither had happened to him. After he had spent some time in the hospital, just to make sure that there wasn't any infection currently running amok in his bloodstream without even him being aware of it, he had walked out as though nothing had happened. Given his state when they had found him, his colleagues had been thoroughly impressed. Even Leon had appeared quite surprised to see him up and walking.

"There was something..." Chris hesitated, scratching the back of his head. "Something happened between Cerberus and me. I don't know how to say it. It's just so embarrassing and overwhelming for me to even think about it..."

"It is?" Jill sounded alarmed, and she had sat up straight in her chair. "Chris, if you feel unwell, maybe you should, you know, go back to the doctor to get checked a second time?"

"No, it's alright, really," Chris hurriedly replied. A bit of a blush had come to his cheeks, and he cursed himself for his intense reaction. "It's just... Cerberus... He, uh, _fought_ me differently from what I had expected. I was prepared for a fighter, not for a … uh..."

"Chris..." Jill extended her hand, squeezing his shivering fingers lightly. "You can say it without having to worry about anything. I'll listen, and then I'll think about my answer carefully. But in order for me to do that, you will need to tell me what it is that's bugging you so much. I can't smell what you're thinking about. I'm not that familiar with you yet." A sparkle of humor appeared in her eyes, and her mouth curled into an honest, teasing smile. "Even though we are so close at times that we are regarded as a pair, not as members of the same team."

Damn, it was just becoming more and more complicated. Of course, Jill was attractive and tempting in her own right. She had stirred the one or other dirty thought in Chris's mind outside their missions, when they had met for dinner or to go to the movies. But to confess that Cerberus had taken him in such a fashion was becoming harder and harder by the second. Just seeing that smile made Chris curse that blasted gooey creature in his mind. Damn, why did Cerberus have to come and make everything more complicated with a single action?

"The thing is, Cerberus seemed to be ready for a fight at the beginning of our encounter. But at some point, the situation just seemed to flip completely. I don't know if it is his style to deal with opposition like this, but it's definitely not the usual combat style." He was beating around the bush, he knew it. Jill raised her eyebrow, looking a tad impatient with him, but she didn't press him on the subject. Instead, she leaned back, looking relaxed and attentive. "Gods, this is all so complicated..."

Chris groaned, brushing through his hair and thinking about how he wanted to go on from that point. There was no turning back now. He had to tell Jill, someone he could trust, or he would go mad with the tension. He needed just one person to confide this secret to, and that would be it.

"He showed me what other things that gooey body of his could do." Chris cleared his throat, a blush creeping up from his neck and up to his ears, covering his cheeks and slowly approaching his forehead. "It, uh, was like straight from some strange hentai movie."

"Wait..." Chris could see how the gears were beginning to turn, as Jill processed the full meaning of this comment. "You mean to say that he used tentacles?"

"Exactly." The blush finally had reached Chris's forehead, and he looked like he just had been dusted with too much rouge. "He pinned me down, and did what those tentacle monsters do best in those movies."

"Wow. Just... Wow. This is unbelievable." Jill didn't sound angered or amused, but simply shocked. She hid her mouth behind her hand, as though she had just said something entirely inappropriate. "He actually had sex with you? Inside that factory?"

Her voice had barely been audible, but Chris had understood her just perfectly fine. He slowly nodded, staring down at his hands. His ears felt like they were on fire from how hard he blushed at the mere thought of that sultry voice, of that rough quality in Cerberus's tone. That smug bastard had wrapped him up in more than one sense. Hell, he even had experienced wet dreams with Cerberus as the central subject right after his trip to the factory. If this was to go on like that, he would have to ask the higher-ups to remove him from the current mission to recover and trap, or—if necessary—eliminate Cerberus. But he wasn't quite willing to give in to the allure of that bastard yet.

"That is just so weird... I'm so sorry, Chris, but I don't know what to say." Jill looked a bit helpless, her smile a bit brittle when Chris looked up at her. "This came a little sudden, and I can't help imagining that the experience must have left quite the impact on you."

"That's an understatement," Chris flatly replied. The heat was slowly draining from his face. It was a slightly strange feeling, to go from a heightened to normal blood pressure again. "It's not funny if that smug bastard still lingers on your mind well after that incident."

"I wouldn't say that so much time has passed," Jill cautiously replied. She, too, seemed to be a little unsure as to how to phrase her opinion on this delicate subject. "It has been two weeks. To call it 'well after that incident,' I would say that it takes much more time. Three months would be understandable, but not two weeks. I think you're trying to put too much distance in too little time between yourself and Cerberus. Maybe that's why he is so very present on your mind."

Maybe, Jill had a point there. Chris leaned back in his chair, thinking about it. Yes, he had been trying hard to forget about the silvery man, about the gooey body and the immense heat he had felt throughout the entire encounter. He had tried to forget the fact that he had been unable to subdue Cerberus in a fair fight, and that Cerberus briefly had taken on Wesker's appearance, just to mock him and throw him off further. It all had made him pretty angry, but it also had served to cement Cerberus's memory in his mind, making it seem fresh even after two weeks. It would need more time, and much more patience, to resolve this issue. What a nuisance.

Jill's hand tore him out of his gloomy thoughts. The reassuring squeeze made him smile, and he cautiously squeezed back a little. She was there for him, and that was a great relief. If she hadn't been there to strengthen his morale and watch his back, he probably wouldn't have been able to endure the mere thought of having to hunt that beast Cerberus. They sat in silence for a while, just until there was a knock at the door. As Chris had suspected, Leon entered the room, looking a tad surprised to find Jill here, but generally seeming to be in a fairly relaxed and talkative mood. That was unusual for him, to say the least.

"I thought I should drop by and see how you're doing, Chris." The casualty with which Leon had stated this was a bit surprising. Chris cocked an eyebrow, but didn't reply right away. "There has been some rumor going about that you didn't tell us everything about the encounter. But I bet that's only some talk." He paused for a moment, looking slightly unsure of his own statement. "At least, I hope there's nothing serious behind this whole deal. You wouldn't hold back on the truth, right, Chris?"

"No." Chris smiled lightly, though he felt bad for simply lying to Leon like that. Then again, he had a much closer bond to Jill, at least he felt like that as of the moment. He had no problem as to telling her what had transpired between himself and Cerberus, but it was an entirely different matter confessing that to Leon. Maybe, he pondered, Leon would have to find out for himself. Not exactly a nice thought to have for his colleague, but it was there.

"Well," Leon continued after a moment of silence, "it seems like we three are tasked with finding that Cerberus thingy. The faster, the better. It won't be easy, though, as far as I could tell from the report you wrote, Chris. With how strong and fast this guy seems to be, it will be a difficult piece of work for us. I like the challenge behind it, but I don't like the insecurity about this whole deal. He could be up to just about anything, and strike anywhere at any time." Leon grimaced. "This thing is a true nightmare, I tell you."

"Don't be too disheartened right away, Leon." Chris grinned now, which flustered the other male a bit. "We will find a way, and we will deal with the situation appropriately. It's just that easy."

But that was easier said than done. They had lost track of Cerberus completely, and they still had a lot of work at their hands. It would be difficult to get Cerberus to resurface, of that Chris was convinced. And there was no telling what would happen once Cerberus was back in action.


	5. Scorpion Tail

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cerberus is ambushed by a large strike team of the BSAA. Jill, Chris and Leon move in to get the rest done. Cerberus proves to be a tough opponent, despite countless bullets being embedded into his substance.

"Remind me again why we always have to get ourselves into danger?" Jill was slowly creeping up to the entrance of the abandoned hall. "I know that we swore to serve and protect, but this is getting out of hand pretty fast, I think."

Chris and Leon exchanged a glimpse, but didn't say anything. They were just as tense as Jill, since the BSAA had reported that a swipe team had encountered and successfully chased off Cerberus. Apparently, they had managed to put a couple of bullets into the silvery goo man. After that, Cerberus had fled into the abandoned warehouse, but there was nothing to be seen from the entrance. Jill narrowed her eyes, angling her head to get a better look at the insides, but then retreated from the door and shook her head.

"I can't see him in there. Are we sure that the enemy is in there?" Jill sounded tense and a bit nervous. "I don't want to walk into a trap."

"We can never be sure," Chris sighed, brushing his hand through his hair. "Cerberus is extremely adaptable to every environment. I wouldn't be surprised if we had big trouble even finding him in there. Even if we had a camera to reveal spots with abnormally high temperature, it would do us no good. I guess that he already knows that we are out to get him. And that he is prepared, more or less."

Leon groaned in annoyance, but didn't stop preparing himself. He reloaded his shotgun and pistol, then glimpsed into the hall. "I think I can see small silver spots all over the ground. Is that some kind of blood?"

Chris considered it. He had found such a strange silver substance in the abandoned factory complex, but didn't know what it could mean. All in all, he was rather convinced that there was something off about it. He, too, took a glimpse into the hall, then sighed quietly. "It might be. But we should be careful to not get distracted by them. As far as I know, Cerberus is able to reabsorb lost mass. That would include such stains."

Leon and Jill exchanged brief glances, but didn't comment on Chris's thoughts. Chris was quite aware that it sounded strange he would know such a detail, but then again, he hadn't told them all the details. Jill seemed to sense where he had this knowledge from, and didn't look his way again. She did blush a little, though. Leon, on the other hand, was getting ready to enter the warehouse, and was too distracted to even care about what his two colleagues had going on between them with scrutinizing and pleading looks.

They entered the hall carefully, gazing around and trying to figure out where Cerberus could be hiding at this moment. Chris felt tense and a little angry, simply because he remembered too well how Cerberus had mocked him, and had easily shaken off his attacks. Plus, he didn't want Jill or Leon falling into the hands of that devious beast. If Cerberus would do to them what he had done to him, Chris wouldn't be able to forgive himself.

"I don't like this..." Jill's voice was low and filled with a sense of dread. "It's too damned quiet in here. We shouldn't split up, that's what my gut feeling is telling me."

"Agreed," Leon and Chris replied at the same moment. They stood back to back to each other, watching their surroundings impatiently, if anything would give away the presence of the strange creature. Where could Cerberus be?

Jill caught movement from the corner of her eyes, and Leon thought he could see something from above. Chris was startled when his colleagues suddenly moved, only to notice that a good portion of the hall seemed to be in motion. Damn, Cerberus surely had improved since the last time, at a frightening rate and with uncomfortable consequences for them.

Chris was thrown off his feet and into a column as suddenly, a thick appendage made from silvery goo swiped them all away like annoying insects. Jill was caught in a net of smaller tendrils, and Leon was trapped beneath a thick and heavy-looking portion of Cerberus's bloated body. Maybe this was his reaction to being wounded? Increasing his mass by such a ridiculous factor? That definitely was not good at all.

"Nice seeing all of you together..." Cerberus's voice sounded strangely distorted and strained. The gooey silver man was struggling to maintain his strength. Chris found it easier to push against the mass, and Cerberus grunted when not only Chris, but also Jill and Leon began to struggle. "Goddamit, why are you all so powerful...?"

"Because we are working together as a team." Jill rammed her knife into Cerberus's struggling mass, and the creature groaned out and let go of her. "You have no one to rely on. You won't escape this time."

Leon gritted his teeth and pushed the thick appendage off him, shooting it several times and making Cerberus cringe back in pain. Chris was somehow gleeful about the fact that Cerberus didn't know how to fend off bullets effectively. While the smug creature was pissing him off without end, he did pity Cerberus a little for catching so many bullets in relatively short time. It had to be incredibly painful, and if Cerberus hadn't been this inhuman thing, he would have been dead long ago. Even an infected would have been dead by now.

The three agents rejoined in about the middle of the hall, fending off appendages snapping their way. Cerberus was gradually compacting into a single mass, retreating from the surfaces of the warehouse. Chris spotted a staircase vanishing slowly, realizing that had been a part of Cerberus, too. If one of them had stepped onto it, they would have been in trouble. But at the moment, they seemed to be in good shape. And with every additional bullet they put into Cerberus, the silver goo cringed back more and more, until it suddenly seemed to implode back into the human shape Cerberus had possessed prior to the experiments.

Jill approached him first, cautious and with her eyes narrowed. Cerberus was panting and in bad shape, but he still seemed to be quite confident. "Fuck, you truly are stubborn. But I'm at least as stubborn as every single one of you..."

Jill jumped back just in time, to avoid getting hit by a humongous scorpion tail, which had sprouted from Cerberus's body in a flash. The stinger was strong enough to leave a considerable dent in the ground, and it made Chris shudder to think that Cerberus had lashed out so strongly. As he had understood the gooey man, Cerberus was not willing to kill anyone. At least, up to this point, Cerberus hadn't lethally wounded any human being. It had been some time since Chris had encountered the creature, so he was quite surprised there hadn't been even one casualty so far, neither military personnel nor civilians.

"Cerberus, I have one question for you. What exactly is your goal?" Leon had cocked his gun, glaring at Cerberus with extreme hostility. "You must be quite sure of yourself if you even challenge us."

Cerberus chuckled weakly, shuddering all over while he tried to get onto his feet. He eventually stood, though his legs looked like they were about to give out beneath him any second. Chris remained alert, since he had read in the reports that Cerberus was engineered to be extremely resilient even in such dire situations. He gave Jill and Leon warning looks, which they acknowledged with brief nods. He hoped they had really understood him...

Cerberus attempted a couple more attacks, his scorpion tail crushing into the ground, a pillar, and even the far away walls. His movements became more sluggish and uncontrolled the more bullets they put into him. Chris was sure that each of them had already emptied at least five clips into the gooey silver man. It was incredible how resilient Cerberus was, but in the end, he was sinking back onto his knees, looking absolutely powerless. Jill growled something beneath her breath, and Leon carefully approached Cerberus, putting his boot onto the gooey man's head, pressing it down against the ground with some force.

"Not so cocky now, huh." Leon spat out and glared down at Cerberus. "Answer me. What is your goal? What is the purpose you were created for?"

Cerberus huffed, shuddering beneath Leon's boot, but never ceasing to grin, even though by now his pain tolerance was exceeded. "I serve no purpose and not a single entity. I serve entirely myself." Cerberus gave another groan, when Leon's heel dug into his gooey skin. "I'm a nightmare even to myself. Without purpose, I feel like I'm about to be torn to pieces. But fighting against you, just for the fun of it, seems like a good enough purpose like any other."

"Don't piss me off!" Leon kicked Cerberus's head, making the silvery man groan in pain. Chris shook his head firmly, grabbing Leon by the shoulder. "We'll take you back to headquarters. Don't think that you'll get off easy this time."

"As if that ever would be the case." Cerberus seemed oddly amused, but he definitely was at the end of his power. "Fuck, this is hurting like a bitch... This is worse than having a sniper's bullet in my chest..."

"Odd that you would know how that feels." Chris crouched down next to Cerberus. The scorpion tail was just limply lying there, weakly twitching. "Who are you really, Cerberus? You haven't always been a strange experiment. Tell me a little about yourself, if you're already deciding to piss us off constantly."

Cerberus sighed, closing his eyes and shaking his head faintly. "Not now... You didn't earn that privilege yet." A fine, chiming sound gave away that not only one, but three bullets already had been expelled from his body. "But one thing is for sure, you are all formidable opponents. It would be a shame to harm one of you strongly enough to leave a permanent mark."

"Shut up." Chris punched Cerberus, and to his surprise, Cerberus seemed to fall unconscious. The scorpion tail retracted into Cerberus's body, and he took on the fleshy color of a human. He didn't look that bad when unconscious. Cerberus's human features were dominated by a strong, square jaw, dark hair, and a strong stubble. "He doesn't look that bad... But I have to admit it's kind of creepy to see him like this."

Jill nodded quietly. "Yes, but the most worrying thing about this is that he somehow looks like a mix between you and Wesker. That's … sick."

"Well, I think I recognize him." Leon turned Cerberus's head lightly to take a better look at his face. "He was reported missing a couple of years ago. I was involved in the search, since around that time, his mission took him right into a hotspot of infected. All of his team could escape – save for him."

"Strange." Jill pulled out her mobile phone and contacted a team for cleanup. "But we will have time for those questions later on."

 


	6. Slow Silver

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cerberus is being questioned by the three agents. And to their surprise, he is not too shy with offering a couple of details...

Cerberus slowly stirred out of his unconsciousness, blinking into the dark around him. His sight still was massively blurred, and he felt cold all over. He heard a murmur close to him, but wasn't able to really identify any words. He tried to roll over, to move in any way, but his body only responded very, very sluggishly. That hadn't happened since he had been created, and it was giving him a feeling of absolute dread what would be in store for him.

"He is coming round. Is everything ready?" That was Chris's voice, or so Cerberus presumed. It at least sounded a lot like the brunet agent. "I don't want him to break free in the middle of this."

"He is sedated enough to put three elephants to sleep." A second male voice, probably Leon's, with quite some glee in it. "But it's still impressive that he is half conscious right now. Maybe sedatives don't last that long for him?"

"Guys, stop discussing. We have cooled him down, and he shouldn't be able to overwhelm us any longer." That had to be Jill. At least, she was the only female Cerberus would have recognized. "Remember, we are supposed to find out more, not to torment him."

Cerberus grunted softly. The bright light of the laboratory, or what at least appeared to be a laboratory, was almost blinding him. He felt that he was restrained, which he couldn't really understand. He wasn't supposed to feel restrained at any time. With how his body had been changed by the experiments, Cerberus was supposed to get out of any kind if restraints. But apparently, Umbrella had successfully let some data about how to properly capture him leak to the BSAA. Well, that was just great.

"Now, you can't use all that shiny powers of yours." Chris leaned over him, scrutinizing him. "First question, Cerberus. You never answered the question of what you were created for. I still want to know."

Cerberus sighed quietly, gazing back up to Chris. "I was created to be an assassin. But since Wesker didn't count on me becoming fascinated by you, I was deemed a failure. Why I wasn't destroyed right away, or worked on some more, so that I would still fulfill some sort of purpose, but that never happened. And I don't know why."

It was obvious that he had thrown Chris off, by the way he had answered that question. But as Cerberus saw it, he had been defeated in a fight, and now owed the BSAA at least something. He had his own set of rules, and one of them (and that was a very hard and fast rule) was that he would always be truthful, if he was to be questioned upon being captured. That had been another reason why he had been deemed a failure by the Umbrella Corporation. Which made understanding why he still was alive even harder than already.

"Okay..." Leon prodded Cerberus's cheek, to draw his attention. "You said something about having gone solo. How did that happen?"

"Wesker didn't seem to be such a good option to me." Cerberus laughed lowly, even though it still sounded strained. It was no wonder, since he still was filled with several dozen bullets, which were causing quite the strain on his body. "Honestly, I don't know why I developed such a conscience. With how I was treated and what sort of role models I had? It's a wonder I didn't end up much, much more fucked in the head than I am right now."

The three agents looked at each other, more bewildered by the second. Despite the dilemma he was in, Cerberus was starting to enjoy this quite some. He loved to screw with the minds of the people around him, especially when they thought that he would tell lies to weasel his way out of any given situation. He just didn't feel like that would be his style, at any given point in time.

"How can we know that you're telling us the truth?" Chris looked rather suspicious now. "I mean, it's already quite the feat Umbrella developed something like you. But still..."

Cerberus craned his head back as much as possible, to give Chris a long, intense look. "Well, actually? You can't trust a syllable I'm saying, I suppose. But it wouldn't be prudent to believe me right away."

It was just funny to see their confused faces. Cerberus had the hardest time to not laugh like mad about how the agents were debating silently what to think of him. Especially Jill was endearing to watch. She was flustered because he had taken on his human coloring once more, and that included the finer details on his body, like his body hair and rather generous assets, to say the least. She was avoiding to look at him directly, at least until Leon was slightly fed up with Cerberus's sneer, and threw a blanket across Cerberus's mid section.

"Well, I guess we could trust you at least to some extent. There still is something which is bugging me slightly, though." Chris was pondering something, Cerberus could see it. "Can't you remember your life before the experiments?"

Cerberus thought about it for a moment, then sighed. "It's very blurry, to be honest. I can't recall everything, but I know that I have been a member of the special forces. And that I was abducted on a mission. I don't remember what my exact rank was, what my name was, or what happened that I was abducted in the first place. Why I was picked? Just as much of a mystery to me as everything else I mentioned."

Chris sighed, looking back over to Leon and making a small gesture. Cerberus wondered what it meant. Had they spoken about something beforehand? He wondered what the agents had planned before they had come here to question him. But he guessed he would find out soon enough.

"Now, Cerberus." Leon stood over him, with crossed arms and a rather haughty expression. "I think it would be time that you told us what you really remember."

Cerberus sighed, rolled his eyes, and then slowly straightened up as much as he could. He at least was able to lean on his forearms, which made Jill stare at his abs for a moment. "I already told you. I was captured for some reason or another—I seriously don't know why none of the others were captured—and then there were the experiments. Everything before my reawakening as Cerberus is very, very blurry. If someone would tell me about something of my past, I most likely would believe them, even if it might just be a complete lie."

"Huh." Leon was a bit surprised, but then gave a small chuckle. "You are not that bad, once you're properly bound and not able to tear yourself free."

Cerberus snorted, poking his tongue out lightly. "You just enjoy being in control, and don't like it when you're facing a completely chaotic situation. I'm a chaotic situation all on my own, granted that I'm free to roam about and make everything go out of control."

Leon smirked, then headed out of the room, Chris in tow. Jill remained behind, and she did something which completely surprised Cerberus. She threaded her fingers into his hair, then pressed a kiss to his forehead.

"You're not too bad when you're behaving for a change." Jill tugged lightly at his hair. "But don't let that get to your head. I still regard you as a threat. Okay, not as equally bad as Wesker, but you still are an enemy of the BSAA. Maybe..." She snickered and shook her head. "I will come back to you with an offer. You're aware that we can't just let you go like that, yes? So, we better make sure that you're properly taken care of..."

 


	7. A New Ally?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cerberus is given a chance to prove himself. He does seem to be reliable, but he is still not a sworn member. And Leon has his suspicions about some other abilities of Cerberus... something which still exists under the radar.

Leon leaned his head to the side, looking quite troubled when he spotted Chris and Cerberus. They were training in a separate hall, away from the curious gazes of the other BSAA agents. That it had been allowed in the first place was a miracle on its own, but then again, they couldn't have kept Cerberus like that forever. At some point, the higher ups would have had to reach a decision anyway. And if that had meant the destruction of Cerberus, it wouldn't have sat well with either of them. Leon had to admit that he still viewed Cerberus as some kind of human, despite the creepy powers. And to kill a human was an utter impossibility for him. It was against all the rules and beliefs ingrained into Leon's mind.

He watched how they moved about the training hall, admiring Cerberus a little. The gooey man had taken on his fleshy color, looking fully human at the moment. Chris apparently had supplied Cerberus with the black shirt and the long, rather tight green pants. From what he could spot, Cerberus was moving about barefoot, though it was a little hard to catch. For such a big guy, Cerberus surely was nimble.

"Hold still already!" Chris was a bit out of breath already, which made Leon wonder how long they had been at it even before he had come here. Cerberus cackled, evading several more blows with ease. "That's not fair, Cerberus, I told you that we should make this a fair fight!"

"Fair is when you use all of your abilities, easy as that!" Cerberus laughed, catching Chris in an uncomfortably tight grip and holding him down onto the ground. "Come on, you can do better than that. You beat Wesker, for crying out loud, Chris, so I should be a piece of cake for you."

"Shut up." Chris struggled and grunted, but then gave up and just laid flat on his stomach. "I had help when defeating Wesker. I never was alone when I ran into him. So it's not the same."

Cerberus sighed, releasing his grip on Chris and helping him onto his feet. "Alright, I suppose you're right. But then again, you put up quite the fight even all on your own. You're impressive enough on your own, believe me."

Leon snickered, coming over and patting Chris's shoulder. "I didn't know you were training Cerberus here. Is he any good in close combat?"

Chris rolled his eyes and smacked the back of Leon's head lightly. "He is perfectly capable of kicking ass, you know that. You saw how he manhandled me, Leon. Do you really need to hear how good he is?"

Cerberus started laughing at that, shaking his head. "You both sound like you're arguing over me. I'm not sure if I should feel flattered or insulted, but either way, it just sounds too fucking hilarious to remain serious."

Leon rolled his eyes slightly. "You're not funny, Cerberus. You're just a huge tease, and that's all. You're not even remotely funny like that." He cursed, though, when Cerberus pulled him off his feet. "Oh just you wait, you'll pay for that."

But Leon was not any more lucky than Chris before him. Wesker already had been a rather difficult opponent, but Cerberus kicked up the difficulty a couple of notches. Even when trying to hit Cerberus with a pellet gun, it was near impossible to hit him. It was as though Cerberus had experienced a rapid case of evolution, which was worrying as well as fascinating.

Cerberus snickered, holding Leon down. He wiggled around a little, just to tease Leon. "Done already? You're no fun, Leon. I thought I would get a better performance out of you."

"Get off, you dick." Leon grunted, trying to break free from Cerberus's grip with quite some force. "It's not funny, Cerberus!"

"You're repeating yourself." Cerberus laughed, then almost made a squeaking sound in surprise when Leon managed to throw him off and get him pinned to the ground. "Okay, that's not so bad after all..."

Leon smirked haughtily, not releasing Cerberus for a while. The gooey man snorted quietly when Leon finally released him, but not without some backhanded compliments coming from the agent. Leon chuckled, especially since Chris seemed to be slightly jealous of the way Cerberus was flirting with Leon. Apparently, his colleague had hoped to hear some compliments from Cerberus for their fight, too. Though, to Leon's surprise, they came with more honey than he would ever have imagined to drip from Cerberus's lips.

Was he really just jealous because his colleague did receive some compliments, even though he had received just as many compliments? They were backhanded, they were coming with a certain sense of glee and dishonesty about Cerberus, and still, they seemed to be like balm for the soul. Was that another aim for Cerberus's appeal? To make him hard to resist, so that everyone would just drop their defense around him?

"Why are you staring at me like that?" Cerberus chuckled, wrapping his arms around both the agents. "You are a funny lot. But I have to admit, it will make my decision to work for the BSAA much more likely. You see, you seem to be quite cool, even though I got you into quite some trouble before. And still, you would choose to be allied with me, instead of fighting me. Even though you would have had me at point blank range. I could just have died there, and still..."

"Hey, are you becoming sentimental about that already?" Leon felt slightly uncomfortable with that thought, but Cerberus did have a point. If they had decided to finish him off, Cerberus would have been utterly defenseless. He just could have waited for them to find a way to destroy him. Leon wondered if "killing" could apply to Cerberus still. He supposed so. Cerberus was a living, breathing, if strange being. He wasn't human any longer, that much was for sure, but he was acting human enough for the BSAA to allow him to still exist, or rather live.

Leon was a bit overwhelmed by the sudden thoughts rushing through his mind, and he had to stop and take a deep breath to calm down again. It did earn him a slightly bewildered look from Cerberus, and a worried one from Chris. He smiled lightly, shrugging. "Just thinking about stuff. Though I didn't know where it came from."

Cerberus shrugged, then hugged Leon, which made the agent wheeze lightly from the tight squeeze. "Hey, it's alright. You just looked like the thoughts ghosting through your mind were really unpleasant."

"That's a plain understatement." Leon squirmed out of Cerberus's hug. "Alright, it's fine now, don't hug me to death."

"And you don't think about nasty stuff any longer." Cerberus poked Leon's forehead lightly. "If I see that frown on your face again, I will hug it right off your face."

Leon groaned and rolled his eyes, but secretly, he enjoyed the attention. It was horrible of him to act like that, he knew it, but there was no way he would let that affect his relationship with Chris. He had built up such a good understanding with Chris over time, he didn't want to risk that for a rogue who would join them on nothing more than a whim of his crazy mind.

And then again, he felt as though he had to prove himself. Leon was still wondering about it when he was in his flat, staring at the ceiling while he tried to fall asleep. Cerberus definitely had left more than a little mark on him. There was just something inexplicable about Cerberus, something which made him think about the gooey man constantly. It wasn't just because he had been with the search party such a long time ago, at least that was what Leon tried to tell himself.

Why … was Cerberus so addictive?

 


	8. Proving Worth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cerberus has his first mission from the BSAA - but it definitely takes a turn he would not have expected at all.

Cerberus was filled with doubts regarding his first official mission from the BSAA. He was reading through the specifications of the mission (containing a new outbreak and identifying a possible new location for a source of the T-Virus), feeling slightly nervous about the whole deal. He knew that he would have to prove in the field that he was capable of doing something. Otherwise, there might be certain extermination awaiting him in the near future.

"Nervous?" Cerberus flinched lightly and blinked up at Chris, who was giving him an encouraging smile. "You look like you are about to do something you never did before. I can't believe that you're so insecure about yourself, Cerberus. You usually brag about how great you are. Why would it be different now?"

"W-Well..." It was painfully obvious that Cerberus was flustered. He was squirming and he didn't want to look like he was about to melt into the ground, but it still was quite clear that the others weren't buying his sudden act of toughness again. "Oh dammit, I am nervous, okay?"

Chris patted Cerberus's shoulder, squeezing it gently. "Now, why would you be nervous? You performed perfectly up to now, don't you think so too? You are a perfect hunter for this job."

Cerberus sighed, gazing back at Chris with a rather serious expression. It was rare for him to drop his playful behavior completely, which usually was something of an armor for him. It was protection for him against a world which regarded him as dangerous, and barely as human. "Yeah, you usually don't see how badly I might screw up whenever I'm out in the field." Chris blinked, dumbfound by this confession. Cerberus sighed, hanging his head. "You can laugh about me now."

Chris didn't even give a small chuckle, he just hugged Cerberus a little. The agent was smiling, which completely baffled Cerberus. He would have been ready for a bit of a scolding, but certainly not for a hug like that. This was so completely unexpected and confusing that he didn't know how to react to it.

"You're just a really silly human, Cerberus." Chris chuckled, squeezing his shoulders again in a rather encouraging manner. "I mean it, it's just normal that you are nervous before a mission, but it is just really endearing to me right now. You look and act as though you're much cooler than all of us, but there is no doubt in my mind that you're just a human at times. And, just be honest, Cerberus: You don't feel like you're a monster, do you?"

"Well..." Cerberus sighed and hugged Chris back, thinking it through. "I don't feel particularly monstrous, that's for sure. I don't know what being a monster feels like. I do feel pretty human, if that means that I'm nervous like never before right now."

Cerberus gave an awkward smile, and Chris finally stirred him into his office, where he could recover from his nervousness regarding the upcoming mission. He was given time to go through his file in peace, and finally, he felt as though he was ready.

"Right, wish me luck." Cerberus got up and gave Chris another awkward, slightly nervous smile. "I feel like I'm about to keel over from nervousness, and if I had a stomach, it would probably heave a lot right now, but it's alright, I suppose." Chris chuckled lightly, but seemed to wait for something, so Cerberus hesitantly added. "But I think that as soon as I'm in the field, I'll be good. Yeah, I'll be good."

Cerberus was brought to an abandoned city, which was odd to him. He was sure that they still were in the same state, so it was bewildering that there would be a ghost city. But it also alerted him. The BSAA was trying its best to get everything under control, but that couldn't prevent the virus to spread throughout a whole city, as it seemed. Cerberus swallowed, waving at the helicopter that it could take off now. He would be on his own here, so he would have to be careful.

Even with all of his shiny powers, Cerberus felt that he would have to be careful if he didn't want to get caught up in an ambush. He could be flexible and near fluid all he liked to be, it would be useless if he was too damaged to actually focus on what he was doing. Despite being a fluctuating being, it didn't mean that he would be invincible, or could always regenerate on a whim. There were limitations to his body, and he would have to take them seriously.

He had been out in the field to eliminate biological threats before, that was no secret, and he had done so marvelously, but that didn't mean for even one second that he was an absolute pro. If anything, he still felt a little like an absolute beginner. He knew that he would be rated according to his performance, so he better performed well.

"Can you hear me, Cerb?" Chris's voice rang clear through the earpiece. Cerberus sighed, adjusting the piece slightly. "Come on, you can't be mad at me for calling you a nickname."

"Oh, I can be." Cerberus chuckled lightly. "Oh well, there's no use getting mad about it, is there. So, just shut up for now, I'm doing fine."

"There's the Cerberus I know." Chris laughed, which made Cerberus groan quietly. "Come on, you have to give me at least that moment. And I'm supposed to guide you a little during the mission. So you're not all alone after all, Cerb."

"What a reassuring thing to know." Cerberus couldn't quite help the slight hint of sarcasm. It was just there. "Alright, anywhere I should check out first? The perimeter is pretty huge, so I'd rather have an idea where I could go, instead of just screwing around and not have a clue of anything."

"Alright, let's see." Chris went quiet for a moment, while Cerberus was still looking around. He had the feeling he was being watched, but maybe, it was just because Chris could communicate with him via the earpiece. Plus, he was pretty sure that the BSAA had some amount of monitoring to do for the area, to make sure that no more outbreaks would manifest so close to headquarters. It would have been disastrous, to say the least. "Head further down the main road, until you see a cinema. It seems that there, something is not quite right. That's where one of our agents reported suspicious movements. It could be that a cat got in here, in which case I pity the poor thing, but I rather make sure that infected are dealt with, rather than let loose again."

"Got it." Cerberus looked around again, flexing his fingers lightly. He was wearing a uniform, but he already had tested the fabric. He could phase surprisingly easily through it, which made it a bit of a challenge to focus on having a firm enough body, to even wear it in the first place. The BSAA had outdone itself with this piece, and he was thoroughly impressed. But that was not the time to ponder about fashion choices. He had to make sure that they weren't facing something similar like a couple of years ago, when this town was in the grip of the infected. That was what he had gotten from the higher ups, and he rather not have anything running around with potentially lethal effects on its surroundings.

"So far everything is quiet." There were no birds or other small animals to be seen around, which always was a sign of trouble in Cerberus's opinion. Something small always was scurrying around, at least in a healthy city. No matter how polluted it became, there always would be something that would crawl, scurry, flutter or sneak around. But in this case, he could sense nothing. There was nothing down the main road, as far as he could see, so there was that.

It took him some time to get to the cinema. The road was pretty torn up and in bad condition, which was a logical consequence of not being maintained in a long time. Changing temperatures and possible brawls with larger infected had left the city pretty wrecked. It was impressed to see the one or other practically unscathed building here and there, though. Destruction always left something in its wake. There would never be no trace of anything left. Something would always remain. Even though whole buildings were not the first thing that would have come to his mind.

Cerberus focused on his surroundings, trying to get a feel for the air and the state everything was in. There still was great concern that the T-Virus could become airborne at some point, which was dismissed by Cerberus for the moment. As much as his body analyzed its surroundings, there were no signs of an airborne stray of the T-Virus. At least that much could be said for certain at that particular moment. But they still would have to care for a way to make sure that the T-Virus never would become airborne in the first place.

"The air is pretty much normal. As normal as it can be for a ghost town like that." Cerberus heard Chris's relieved sigh over the earpiece. "And as far as I can tell, there are no infected along the main road. I haven't checked the cinema quite yet, though. The streets are so badly damaged that it's hard even for me to move around quickly."

"That's something out of your mouth." Chris was typing on a computer. Cerberus could hear the clicking of the keys, which was oddly reassuring at that moment. "How bad is the damage?"

"Well, in some parts, I can see the ground beneath the sewer system, so there's that..." Cerberus furrowed his eyebrows and looked a little further into one of the larger sinkholes. "And it seems like the earth has moved quite some. I suspect that there was a disturbance from the outside. Or have there been any bigger earthquakes in recent time?"

"No, there's nothing of that sort." Chris remained quiet for a moment. "Do you think it might be a new stray of infected?"

"Negative. I extended a part of my body down there and checked the earth. Even if there was something down there, it should leave some traces of infected tissue. But there is absolutely nothing of that sort. It seems that it's the work of bacteria or smaller animals."

Cerberus snickered about the surprised sound Chris uttered. "How do you know that, Cerb?"

"Training. Lots of it. I was supposed to be an informant of some sorts, after all. So I had to make sure to learn analyzing even the smallest traces." Cerberus slowly straightened up again, before moving on towards the cinema. "Towards the cinema, it's hard to tell if there's anything wrong at all. So far, I picked up no signs that there would be anything wrong."

"So there is no trace of the virus if you're outside the cinema?"

"None so far." Cerberus took his time to search the surroundings of the cinema, even probing into the side alleys and the back of the cinema. "There's nothing here. I suppose it could look completely differently on the inside, though. The air conditioning stopped working when you cut the power to the city, after all, so I wouldn't be surprised if on the inside, everything was festering with that hellish virus."

Cerberus cautiously climbed through the broken glass door, sniffing at the air. It smelled a bit moldy, which was no surprise after such a long time, but mostly, it smelled surprisingly fresh. As though he was close to the woods. He couldn't spot the plants right away, since his eyes still were accustoming to the stark contrast between the outside and the inside. But as soon as he had a feeling for what his surroundings were like, he chuckled quietly.

"You should see this, Chris, it looks like a tropical glass house for beginners. Nothing much here yet, but there are a couple of plants, and it's rather nice here."

"That wasn't exactly what I expected..." Chris chuckled, adjusting his own headset, from the sounds coming from Cerberus's earpiece. "Can you take a couple of samples from the plants? Maybe they are resilient enough to prosper in such an environment. It would be nice to know what exactly made them grow there."

"Alright." Cerberus laughed. "Alright, that was not exactly what I expected from this mission, but I'll take it. But I'll come back here later. I'm still convinced that there is something down there."

"You don't have to do that later on. You can go in right now." Chris sounded a bit concerned now. "You should be absolutely sure."

Cerberus paced down into the basement of the old cinema, blinking into the surprisingly bright fluorescent light. He hadn't expected to see anything down here. He could have gone around just by feel and sensing the vibration he sent out. And it was all the more disturbing to find the remains of several infected, with the plants sprouting out of it.

"Uh, Chris, I think we might have something down here." Cerberus paced around the plant a little and got a few impressions on how huge it really was. "Either we have a really huge problem now, or we just found the one weapon against the T-Virus Wesker never would have counted on."

"What?" Chris sounded simply astonished. "Are you sure about that?"

"Pretty much." Cerberus picked a few of the strange glowing leaves from the plant. It didn't shudder or anything, as he would have expected. It really was just a plant, every sense of his told him that (and he had a huge range of senses at his disposal). "Alright, I'm on my way back. This is really not what I would have expected. But damn, it does have a nice feeling about it still."

"Then you better get used to it." Chris laughed now. "You'll be doing this for a while, I think."


	9. A Motive is a Motive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What is Cerberus's motive? That is the main question for the BSAA at that moment.

"Cerberus, I have a question for you."

The silver male looked up in surprise. He had fallen into the habit of leaving away his colour disguise within the perimeters of the BSAA headquarters, since it was easier for him to focus on just shape and not colour, too. Leon sat down opposite of him with a tray of food. Cerberus had sat down in the canteen to enjoy the portion of metals he had been given. As much as he preferred liquid nourishment, he couldn't avoid chewing on the one or other strip of metal now and then. It bent easily in his mouth, and he had a habit of chewing on it like chewing gum. He swallowed the piece he just had been chewing on, giving Leon a puzzled look. "What's the matter, Leon?"

Leon didn't reply right away, but rather ate a bit of his food, before he finally sighed and looked at Cerberus with a slightly concerned expression. "I don't mean to be disrespectful towards you, but I'm just really confused. I mean, you could be on your way and do whatever you want, with which I mean that you could just go off and fuck shit up big time. But you just don't do it."

Cerberus sighed, leaning forward. "Well, since I know you mean to say that you're glad for that, since I can't imagine that you would want this to be the case. I still have my humanity, Leon. I don't see the point in fucking shit up. Unless, of course, it serves to piss Wesker off further and further, until he will make a crucial mistake and get wrecked in battle."

Leon couldn't hold back a small smile, but he still shook his head. "You're strange, Cerberus. You're the first biological weapon I encountered without the wish to destroy at least a city. You just want to go on with your life, do what your human body wouldn't have allowed you to do, and then be done with everything."

Cerberus chuckled, nodding slowly. Leon understood, he supposed. It was hard to comprehend that he had turned away from Wesker like this and was acting according to such strange rules. He had set them up for himself, and he was content with how it had worked out. Of course, it confused everyone around him, and he was a bit tired of having to explain everything to everyone twice or more, but that was really a minor drawback.

"You know, I can't see the point of destroying something, without anyone having agitated me. If the structure to wreck would be harmful otherwise, then it's not even a question for me. But the mindless rampage of other biological weapons..." Cerberus shrugged mildly. "I find it sad that they seem to have lost a couple of their feelings. I don't think they lost it all, though. At least not in every case."

"You're really strange." Leon leaned his head into his hand. "I can't understand how you came to be like that. Wesker should have made you become the biggest prick in history, and you choose to fuck him over and go your own road. It's amazing, and a bit scary."

Cerberus snickered, but instead of arguing back that he, if he had chosen to do so, could have gone to the entirely other side of the spectrum of scary, he turned back towards his meal. Leon was currently eating, so he took it as a sign that he could take some of the metal he had been given and chew on it again. He enjoyed crunching away on it, and the bewildered looks he got from some of his new colleagues. Not all of them were entirely sure of what he was, and he enjoyed toying with them more than he might have admitted in front of them. But then again, he never had been asked about that particular kind of pleasure.

Leon was quite the sight when he was distracted. Cerberus had to admit that he had quite the hots for Leon, as he had for Chris. And then there was Jill, whom he adored for her stubbornness and her ability to kick everyone's ass just as hard as anyone else. All three of them were too tempting for his own good, and he knew that. If it hadn't been for all of them to be here (though admittedly, Chris was the one who was the biggest treat for him), then he wouldn't be here at all. Cerberus was convinced that he, if Chris not have been an agent of the BSAA, he would have turned his back on the organization at first encounter and had gone somewhere entirely else.

"Cerberus, tell me, why did you come here of all places? After all, we could have destroyed you by now. Okay, there's Chris, but he can't be your only reason you're here, right?"

Leon's questions surely were peculiar today, but Cerberus didn't think much of it. He thought about a reason why he had come here, other than having plenty of opportunity to stare at Chris's shapely behind, but he couldn't really think of anything.

“I suppose that I don’t really have another place to go to. I don’t think that I would be happy any other place, so to speak. Then again, there is something about coming close to a supposed enemy. I want to find out if there is more to me than acting as an assassin. Which I failed at spectacularly.”

Leon snorted lightly and then nodded. “Yep, you failed really hard at that. You’re the worst assassin I ever encountered. But there is something that makes you quite endearing, thinking about it. I mean, you’re incredible with the change you have made about yourself.”

Cerberus shrugged lightly, giving just the faintest of coy smiles. He was somewhat proud that he had managed to make Leon praise him. That was something which happened rarely. He just enjoyed the thought, basked in it a bit, and then snickered about it. “Well, Leon, you’re a nice guy to me, so there’s another reason for me to stay.”

“Shut up.” Leon snorted, but there was a mischievous expression on his face. “And you really should stick to your own business. But, alright, you did prove your worth. At least to some amount.” He paused, then added: “And you’re a good addition to the team. I’m glad to have you here.”

That left Cerberus stunned, and it took a while before he recovered. Leon really had behaved strangely. “I’ll be damned…” Cerberus muttered to himself, then grinned. Well, this was just all the better. So he was doing something right for a change. Well, that was just perfect.

Then, Chris came over to his table, and sat down with him. Cerberus greeted him with a grin, though was a bit puzzled about the concerned expression. Something seemed to be wrong. The agent was a serious type, but usually not such a serious type that he wouldn’t smile a little.

“I have a question for you, because I will need it to determine your willingness to go to a certain extent for the agency.” Chris sighed lightly. “I really just need a general idea.”

“Well, you are a big reason why I joined.” Cerberus scratched the back of his neck. “I have a fucked up moral compass, at least from the point of view of my supposed creator…” He paused. “And I think that it is the right thing to do. You taught me that.”

Chris seemed a little flattered by that admission, but overall, he was just trying to get this over with, as it seemed. “Alright, that’s good enough for me. You have a motive, and that is doing the right thing. That is really good enough for me.”


	10. Settled and Gentle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chris decides to drop by Cerberus's place, and he is quite surprised to find that there is such an ordinary air about the unusual being.

Chris quirked an eyebrow and looked up at the house that supposedly was the address of Cerberus. He hadn’t expected something so up-scale and tidy, to be fair. He himself didn’t really have a place to call home between missions, or so he felt. But here he was, and that was just puzzling for him. Why had he come here? He had been caught up in some thoughts, yes, but why would he still come to Cerberus’s place…?

He paced up and down for a moment, debating with himself over what to do. He couldn’t just turn back and go away. It would nag at him, and that was the troubling thing about it. Why would he feel so attached to Cerberus? Chris rubbed the back of his head and sighed. “This is just madness… Why would I go there…?”

Chris was still mulling it over in his head when he climbed the stairs to the second floor, and rang at the door which read “Hades”. That was something that made him snort lightly. Now there was something which hinted at the sense of self-irony Cerberus sometimes displayed. Who would have chosen such a name in their right mind? He sighed quietly, shaking his head. No sense in thinking about that now, too. So he just knocked and waited nervously for Cerberus to come to the door.

“Oh, hi Chris.” Cerberus was obviously rather surprised to see the agent. He needed a moment to get his act together. “Come in. I didn’t think that you would come over here…”

Chris chuckled quietly. The apartment Cerberus inhabited was rather clean, free from any bad smells, and it looked almost a bit Spartan. There wasn’t much overly lavish furniture. There was something about the apartment that made it look almost clinical, but then again, Chris pondered, it matched Cerberus. Chris could well imagine that Cerberus had originated from a laboratory, and thus had grown accustomed to this clean, straightforward environment. Only the smell was a different one. It was a healthier smell, for a lack of better words.

“I was just occupied with my plants.” Cerberus smiled a bit awkwardly and pointed towards a group of flowering pots containing various green plants, some of them with tiny buds, some with flowers showing already. “I am in a phase of cross-pollinating them. I want to see if I can properly do everything.”

“You are doing what?” Chris blinked confusedly. “I’m sorry, I have no idea what you just talked about.”

“I’m working on pollinating all the flowers. It’s a bit of a tedious job, but it’s necessary. I’m in the middle of the city here, and I don’t really have a balcony or the capabilities yet to support an entire bee colony, which would be better, of course.” He fell silent for a moment, and Chris could feel that this here was one of the true passions of Cerberus. An oddly charming streak about this man, really. “I am planning on doing that, but then again, I would feel cruel if I locked the bees up here. Plus, it probably would result in the bees getting stressed out. So I’m working on convincing the residents to allow for a bee colony to go on the roof. It’s not used for anything else really, and they all have their balconies.”

Chris chuckled, shaking his head lightly. “You’re much kinder than I would have imagined. This is a bit confusing for me really.” He sat down on the couch after Cerberus had indicated him to take a seat. “I am still surprised that you are supposedly coming from the laboratories of Umbrella. This doesn’t sound at all like you’re a crazed and dangerous bioweapon.”

“Well, I already explained it to you. I’m not exactly an assassin. It’s just my way of dealing with the whole stuff. I know that I can provide a nice environment for plants, and that is reassuring to me. I would get a pet if I had the time, too.” Cerberus smiled lightly, then he grinned. “Oh. I think you saw the name I put on the bell, right?”

Chris nodded with a snicker. It was hard to not like Cerberus by now. With his softer sides exposed, this was just too sweet. “I couldn’t quite believe it. You picked the last name of ‘Hades’? Why would you do that?”

“I just thought it would be a funny thing to do.” Cerberus laughed, then got up on his feet. “There we go, all pollinated. This should do the trick as of the moment.”

Cerberus gently put the pots back into their respective places, and Chris smiled again. It was fairly obvious that there was much affection in Cerberus’s heart, even for such simple things as plants. But then again, Cerberus seemed to think of the plants as more than simple things. There was just so much joy in Cerberus’s expression, Chris almost was a bit jealous of the plants Cerberus took care of.

Finally, Cerberus sat down next to Chris. The agent snickered, stretching in delight. “I wonder, Cerberus, how did you find out that you like to care for plants?”

“It was an impulsive thing really. I always liked the smells of plants, so I went to a flower shop and looked around. I wasn’t quite satisfied with that, so I went to a flower nursery, and there was just a little selection of nice little plants. Some of them were given out at a reduced prize, so I thought that I could just as well take them. Even plants need some love, just like pets with perhaps a crooked paw or a missing ear. Those were the plants that hadn’t been taken because they didn’t look quite as appealing as some of the others.”

“I see.” Chris shifted around on the couch, smiling lightly. “So you’re sweeter than you were intended to be, huh?”

“Well.” Cerberus smiled a bit awkwardly and squirmed a bit, as if he was unsure what to answer. “I really just came out to be a fucked up experiment from the point of view of what was intended for me to happen.” He shrugged lightly. “But I suppose that it was inevitable at some point, because I would always run into someone like you. With my intended line of work, I would always butt heads with those who would be upstanding agents.”

Chris shrugged just as well, then gripped Cerberus’s shoulder. “You know, I think that we should be glad that you turned out the way you are right at the first moment. I don’t know if encountering me as the assassin as you were intended to be that you would have turned around.”

Cerberus smiled lightly and then nodded. “Yeah, I suppose that it’s better like that.” He got up from the couch, nodding towards the kitchen. “Do you want something to eat? I happen to have something over.”

Chris nodded and got up right after Cerberus, to look through the well-filled fridge. It confused him a little bit, because it looked like Cerberus didn’t actually need that food. Even more a surprise was the fact that Cerberus now needed to eat. Chris observed how Cerberus chewed on a carrot, then grinned at him. “You’re that surprised? You should have read that last report. I went through a bit of an evolutionary push during the last mission. And that means that I now have to sustain my energy levels on several levels.”

The agent simply nodded softly, but there was nothing about to enter his mind that he wanted to say about the whole thing. He just helped Cerberus chopping up some vegetables, so that they could prepare some pasta for themselves. He caught himself watching Cerberus’s hands, how the male worked with the ingredients. It was a very calming sight, in a way. Cerberus was working steadily and with joy. It was good to see that he had a rather structured life outside of the job with the BSAA.

“You have settled in just nicely.” Chris smiled up at Cerberus, who looked fairly puzzled and then a bit flustered. “I didn’t think that you would turn out to be so ordinary.”

Cerberus chuckled. “It’s the ordinary people who are extraordinary…”


	11. Failed Weapon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cerberus is determined to face off against Wesker - but there is no way of predicting how this mission will end. Chris is worried, but he, Leon and Jill will have to gear up anyway.

Chris looked up when Leon came into the meeting room. He looked worried, and along with him, Jill entered the room, followed by Cerberus. Chris blinked, but didn’t say anything as of the moment. He had the feeling that something was about to happen, but he didn’t quite know why everyone was looking so gloomy. It didn’t really fit what was going on in his mind, to be fairly honest.

“We have a problem on our hands.” Leon was unusually quiet. He fidgeted around, glancing over at Cerberus without outright looking at him, then focusing back on Chris. “Wesker broke free from Cerberus’s prison. It seems that Wesker, too, has gone through an evolutionary leap. He is much more dangerous by now than he was ever before. And we will need to act fast.”

“Then why are we sitting here?” Chris furrowed his eyebrows, then, it suddenly dawned on him. “They want to send in Cerberus, right.” His voice was flat now, and he shuddered with suppressed anger. “This is madness. This will get him killed.”

They all fell silent for a moment, and Chris tried to make eye contact with Cerberus. But Cerberus had averted his eyes, and he looked anxious about what had happened. Chris was almost desperate to get a look at his face, but he knew that he had to be calm and professional now. But he still thought it was the worst possible moment for such a revelation. He didn’t like the thought that, even though Cerberus was such a powerful brawler, the BSAA apparently had decided to send in Cerberus on his own.

“I am willing to go there and face my creator, Chris.” Cerberus now was looking up and into Chris’s eyes, but Chris could see that there was fear in Cerberus’s eyes. It was a heart-wrenching sight. “I don’t want you to get mixed up in this. I will be able to react to nearly everything that will be thrown at me, but there is no way I will let you get into the line of fire. I don’t want you to get hurt, you know.” He smiled weakly. “I’m just a big softie by now, but I can still kick some bioweapon freak’s ass.”

With that, Cerberus got up and left the room, and Chris just sat there in what was close to shock. He shuddered, shaking his head slowly. “This is madness.” He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed quietly. “I can’t believe that they would send him to do this. But he is set, isn’t he. He really wants to do this, and he really wants to show that he can do what others would fail at.”

Leon nodded slowly, and Jill squeezed Chris’s hand gently, but didn’t say anything. They all were rather shaken up, but they knew that they couldn’t do much. Of course, there was the possibility to object with their superiors, but in the end, it would be Cerberus’s call if he wanted to do this mission or not. And as it seemed, Cerberus wanted to do whatever it took to make sure that Wesker would be stopped.

Chris slowly got up, and his colleagues followed him. They all had work to do. Even though Cerberus would officially go alone on this mission, there still was backup to wait for him, and someone to guide him through the perimeter. Chris rubbed across his face to get himself together again, but he still felt uneasy when he began preparing for the mission together with Leon and Jill.

“You’re really tense, Chris. What’s the matter?” Jill had caught him in a corner of the room, and had put his hand on Chris’s shoulder. “I think that you don’t have to be all that afraid. I believe that Cerberus will pull through this.”

“That’s not exactly the point.” Chris’s voice sounded hollow even to himself. “I don’t want this to happen like this. I mean, there is something that really makes me nervous about this thought. About the idea that Wesker will be able to do even more than he already was able to do. He is dangerous, and he is a crazy guy. So there’s that. Cerberus is up to par with about anything that Wesker has thrown at us by now, but he never really faced off against Wesker himself. This one time he did, Wesker still was unaccustomed to Cerberus’s way of fighting.”

Jill slowly nodded, but she didn’t seem to fully agree with Chris. But instead of arguing with him, she tended to her own preparations. They all were gathering weapons and information about what was about to go down. The only thing they knew for a fact was that there was a new place where a breakout had been registered. The people already had been evacuated and checked for any traces of viruses, and the only thing left to do was for the BSAA to go in and root out anything infected that still was present within the perimeter. It would take some time, and it definitely wouldn’t be easy, but it was just what their duty dictated them to do.

Chris managed to slowly calm himself down while he was preparing for the mission. He would be there to assist Cerberus and, to some extent, protect him. The thought was somewhat strange for him, but then again, it was something he could do, and do to make sure that there would be no more suffering. Yet still, he had the feeling that something terrible could happen to Cerberus.

As much as they had struggled with him, there was no denying that he no longer was dangerous to anyone. Cerberus now fitted just nicely into society. He had shown so many signs of compassion and humanity, there was no way that such a being could be an absolutely cold-blooded being on the other hand. They had gotten to known him around the clock, had mapped out his steps of before the time he had been with the BSAA. Nothing would have ever suggested that Cerberus had lapsed into psychotic series of killing.

“He is not a monster. We all know that.” Chris sighed quietly. “But I still get the feeling that our superiors want to treat him as such.”

“That’s not true, Chris.” Jill shook her head rather firmly. “They have seen, too, what he is capable of, and how he has changed compared to what he has been like before. And even before he was with us, he never killed anyone. He never even went so far as harming anyone seriously. So there’s that. There is absolutely no evidence that the Humanity Abandonment Project worked on him. For all we know, it just made him more human.”

Chris nodded slowly. That was true, as far as he could judge. As much as Wesker had tried to make Cerberus into something completely inhuman, there was no indication that he had succeeded in any respect. In fact, the outcome of Cerberus’s transformation rather suggested that, through a series of serious miscalculations, Cerberus had clung even more to his humanity rather than abandoning it.

And now it could come down to a confrontation between master and creature. This was an unnerving thought, but there was also a faint conviction that Cerberus would pull through. And still, Chris felt uneasy when they boarded the helicopter. Cerberus facing off against Wesker promised for an intense battle. The question was, though, who would come out as a victor, and it was the answer he was afraid of.


	12. Creator, Creation, Clash

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A showdown between Cerberus and Wesker takes place in the ruins of the city. And there is something in the background.

It wasn’t that much of a strain to find Wesker. In fact, it was almost pathetically easy. Cerberus was a bit disappointed that he immediately ran into Wesker when he just had wandered down along the main street of the now wrecked city long enough. He grunted, shaking his head and sneering then. This was just perfect. A showdown with his former master, and oh so dear creator. This was just what he had been itching for. He had beaten Wesker one time, and he would be able to do this another time. Even if Wesker had gone through a couple of changes himself, he would not allow this to let Wesker have any kind of advantage over him at any point in time.

“So, you come crawling back to me, Cerberus.” Wesker was as smug and casual about it as ever. Cerberus snorted, shaking his head slowly. “Ah, so you are coming back with your fangs bared and your intentions set on fighting me? That is not a good boy. You should be ashamed of yourself, Cerberus. Why would you want to fight me? Why would you want to make me sad about your failure, even sadder than before? You could have been such a good asset, but alas, you had to blow it all.”

“Could you please not?” Cerberus pinched the bridge of his nose. Really? Wesker tried the guilt routine? This was just a perfect scenario of the kind that he didn’t want to happen, since it was just too absurd. Why would Wesker think again that this would work on him in any way or form? “I have come here with clear intentions. It’s time that your ass wanders into a high-security container, and remains there. Or, even better, it’s time for you to watch the grass grow from six feet under.”

“So you would wish for me to die? That’s something new. Maybe you still could be an assassin, Cerberus.” Wesker took off his glasses—he had picked his usual black leather attire, which made Cerberus feel even more out of place—and flicked them to the side. So he wasn’t as concerned with keeping his appearance guised as usually. Well, it wasn’t a surprise really. They were practically alone in this rotten city, and there was absolutely no reason whatsoever for Wesker to hold back. “You could have been an assassin from the very beginning, yet you chose to fail every single task I ever gave you. You even tried to make Chris yours? Please.” Wesker scoffed, and now, something changed. Cerberus couldn’t exactly tell why, but he just knew that Wesker was growing defensive about something. Could it be…? “Chris still belongs to me, Cerberus. Let’s just be clear about that.”

Cerberus briefly believed that he had heard an indignant and incredulous gasp coming from his earpiece. He was not quite sure himself what he just had heard, or if he had heard correctly. Wesker was trying to claim some sort of twisted ownership over Chris? How fucked up was that? Wesker had repeatedly tried to kill off BSAA agents, all of them former teammates of his, and now, this was happening? This had to be some form of joke. It just had to be. And yet, Wesker seemed to be entirely sincere with his intentions.

“You won’t get Chris.” Cerberus’s eyes were narrowed, and he was just as sincere as Wesker when he uttered those words. “I have spent the last couple of months getting to know him, really getting to know him, and you won’t waltz in here and just claim him for yourself and your perverted fantasies, you pathetic fuckwad.”

“Now, Cerberus, I think I raised you better than that.” The snide tone in Wesker’s voice was unmistakable. “You don’t think that a pottymouth like that will impress anyone, do you now? But don’t you worry, you’ll have entirely different difficulties soon enough. I still know how to incapacitate you best, and don’t you think that you’ll have an easy time with me.”

Cerberus grunted. He would have loved to throw something at Wesker, but he just didn’t feel like remaining verbal and comparably civil now. His body went into its fully silvery state, while Wesker’s body showed those sickening black tentacles, the whole corruption the virus had brought about its own creator. It was a rather difficult sight to bear, for Cerberus knew that he could have ended up just the same way, but it was something he had to push to the back of his mind right now. He had to defend himself, and by extension, Chris and the others. But still, the thought that Wesker wanted to claim Chris just like that was enraging beyond words.

They both dashed forward, clashing into each other and creating a shockwave from the sheer power behind their both movements. It was difficult for Cerberus to resist the initial blast. Wesker indeed had become a lot stronger, but Cerberus himself also had learned to pack a more powerful punch. It would undoubtedly be incredibly difficult to hold his own against Wesker, let alone defeat him, but there still was a conviction that he could do it. He had to do it. Chris would not fall into the hands of this sick fuck who had turned him into what he was right now in the first place. While Cerberus was done brooding over it, he still couldn’t quite forgive Wesker the fact that he had lost his normal, human life through this step.

“Quite commendable.” Again, Wesker’s tone was filled with an edge, with a snide that just stung. “But you still lack the force to truly impress me.”

“Shut the fuck up.” Several silvery tentacles ripped through Wesker’s blackened and distorted body, but it didn’t really seem to harm Wesker all that much. Rapid regeneration had become a part of Wesker just as much as it had always been a part of Cerberus. “Just to remind you: the first time you dared fighting against me, I handed you your ass without as much as breaking a sweat.”

Wesker growled at that. He still was a bit hurt over this fact. Just perfect, as Cerberus deemed. He wanted to enrage Wesker, wanted to make him lose a part of his focus. With how focussed and controlled Wesker was at the moment, there wasn’t much of a chance that he would defeat his creator too soon. At least, that was his picture of the whole situation. If he just would be able to throw off Wesker a bit, it would already mean a lot in the fight.

The fight fully raged from that moment on. Suddenly, it was just a flurry of black and silver fighting against one another, barely human shapes dancing in the already demolished streets. Wesker threw Cerberus right into a building, accompanied with spiny projectiles aiming at the core of Cerberus’s being. He barely was able to dodge them, and avoid crashing into the building too hard at the same time. In retaliation, he lashed out at Wesker, growling loudly. He didn’t want to be pushed into an inferior position already. But there was no doubt on his mind that this would be a long, and most of all a difficult fight.

They lashed out against one another over and over again, healing their damaged bodies in a flash whenever a swing connected. They were not giving one another even an inch. They only briefly paused to gather their wits, and to gauge one another. There was no clear tendency. There was no sign of whom would win over the other. And that was a bit of a problem for both of their egos.

“Why do you even fight so much, Cerberus?” Wesker shook his head, trying to sound condescending, but there was a strange vibe about his voice, which gave away his insecurity. “You’re not even human. Why would Chris be interested in you?”

“I have the same question for you.” Cerberus snorted lightly. “You really should watch out what bullshit you’re spouting there.”

Wesker paid that comment back with several spiky tentacles lashing out at him. Cerberus took quite a pummelling from it, and for a moment, his feet budged. “You’re a pathetic little fucker, Cerberus. You failed to satisfy at every turn of your life, so why should Chris deserve such a pathetic loser as yourself?”

The answer came swift and, for Wesker, unexpectedly. Cerberus’s silvery liquid body constricted around him and his appendages to the point of breaking bone and making twisted flesh split open from the intense pressure. “Oh. I can tell you. I actually give a fuck about Chris, and not just about having a fucking power trip. And I care about me remaining human, as human as I could fucking be.”

What followed was an absolute thrashing. Wesker didn’t get to attack any longer after being restrained. Cerberus beat Wesker unconscious, which took not only a couple of seconds, but nearly half an hour of wailing at Wesker from all sides. Eventually, his recovery speed slowed down, and Cerberus snorted. “Knew it. You still rely too fucking much on that cute little virus to you.”

Wesker grunted and then lay motionless on the concrete. Cerberus snickered, then slowly melted back into a more human form. He shuddered lightly, feeling exhausted and drained from almost all of his power. It was definitely more than just a tiny fight with Wesker. His creator definitely had packed quite a punch. But like Hell he would have let Wesker win.

His grin grew when he noticed that Chris, who had accompanied the clean-up crew, had grown beet red. Cerberus huffed when he got a punch on the shoulder, which definitely hurt more than he would have expected. “You blabber about owning me one more time, and I’ll beat your ass.”

“Ouch.” Cerberus snickered lightly and shook his head. “Hey, I just saved your ass. So don’t be such a sourpuss about it.”

Chris shook his head, but then, his expression mellowed. Wesker was restrained and carted off, and finally, Chris relaxed again. Cerberus worried a bit about this behaviour. There was some history between Wesker and Chris, and apparently, it had started to resurface in Chris’s consciousness again. Cerberus wanted to say something, but then remained quiet. He didn’t know what to say without screwing something up, possibly. But then again, he had the feeling that Chris really wanted to say something to him.

But as of the moment, he really had to recover from this fight.


	13. Cooldown

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A bit of aftermath after the fight with Wesker, and friendly bickering.
> 
> A bit of a rushed ending, but I felt that this shouldn't be dragged out for too long any longer.

“You shouldn’t have charged at him just at a strange whim.” Cerberus blinked when Chris spoke up after a long silence on the car ride back to headquarters. “It was very close, and you know it.”

Cerberus sighed, leaning back and rubbing across his face. He knew that he had taken quite a risk with the mission. It wasn’t as though he had just waltzed in and assumed that he would come out on top anyway. But the way Chris emphasized it, Cerberus had the impression that this was exactly what Chris had expected to happen. This was just confusing beyond words. Cerberus felt that there was some underlying problem, but there was no way for him to really pin down what it was.

“What did I do wrong this time? Just tell me, Chris. Tell me what I did. I don’t know. I did my job, I did it well, but you still are pissed about it.” Cerberus leaned back and shook his head. “What, are you at the state of being unable to see anything good about me, no matter what I try?”

“It’s not about that.” Chris looked pent up, and not exactly in a good way. “You being that close to Wesker had me worried. And you spent quite some time in the decontamination truck. You could have turned into some hazardous goo, and you just act like it all was nothing to you.” Chris grunted. “Do you actually think this was all so easy and just a walk in the park? You could have gotten torn to shreds, and that would have been the end of you and your stupid prattling.”

“Sheesh.” Cerberus lifted his hands and shook his head, not understanding what Chris wanted to jab at. “Cut me some slack here, yeah? I’m not human any longer, Chris. I’m not someone who can get infected. I couldn’t even properly carry any viruses, for fuck’s sake, so tone it down.”

Chris didn’t immediately reply, which honestly surprised Cerberus. He had expected that the other would snap at him yet again for this cheeky phrasing, but it seemed that Chris was holding something back. Cerberus was growing more and more curious, and blinked a bit dumb-found when Chris pulled over into a small area next to the street and then switched off the engine.

“Would it kill you to be careful just for one time?” Chris sounded pained, and Cerberus was utterly puzzled as to where this had come from now. “There was talking that they might not be able to completely remove all viral residue from you. You would have been locked away as a biohazard for as long as it would have took them to find a way to destroy the last bits. You can count yourself lucky that you’re as damned resilient and non-organic as you are.”

Cerberus needed some time before he could recover from what he just had heard. Chris was much more worried about him than he ever had fathomed. Cerberus always had, for some reason, assumed that Chris wasn’t all that worried, and more likely annoyed that he was such a pain in the neck at times. Then again, Cerberus always had fancied the thought that there would be something about him that attracted Chris to him. That it could be something like that, or rather even more, was something which completely caught Cerberus off guard. As much of an ass and a douche he could be, he still was rather surprised when someone really wanted to be together with him. After all, he was well aware of the abrasive nature he could have. But still…

“I’m sorry.” Cerberus sighed quietly, squeezing Chris’s shoulder then. “I’ll watch out better in the future, alright? But please don’t be mad at me, Chris. I did what I was sent out to do. It was stupidly difficult and dangerous, and I very well could have been completely obliterated, which I know, but there was nothing else but your safety, and the safety of everyone else on the team in my mind.”

There was a long silence, in which Cerberus grew more and more uncomfortable. He didn’t like people growing silent on him for some reason or another. Chris started the car again, and drove them back onto the motorway to head for headquarters. Cerberus grew more and more nervous, though groaned when he noticed that Chris was snickering. “You just screwed with my mind now.”

“No, I didn’t. I’m not the type playing mind games.” Chris still couldn’t quite stop snickering. “It was just amusing to see you get all flustered about something so small. And I wanted to see you flustered again. You’re so full of yourself, but you can be pretty sweet too. You really should be more like that.”

Cerberus rolled his eyes, but he then leaned back and closed his eyes. This would be the opportunity to cool down after the battle, settle back into a more relaxed routine, and just enjoy the daily life he had built up around himself. This was just what he had wanted after the fight with Wesker.

But something told him that there was no way that he would fall into a routine all too soon. There was this feeling that there was something still waiting for him around the corner, and there was no doubt in his mind that there would be a lot of fighting still to be done. Whatever it would be, he would get the job done.


End file.
